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U.S. Accuses ISIS of Forcing Disabled Children to Carry Out Attacks in Iraq | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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ISIS militant. Reuters


Cairo-ISIS militants are forcing children and disabled people into explosives-laden trucks and making them drive at Iraqi security forces in Mosul, a general from the U.S.-led coalition has said.

The barbaric tactic, coupled with other increasingly desperate battlefield measures, is a sign the ISIS terrorist group knows that its defeat is inevitable, Dar al-Iftaa said in a report published on Friday.

The militants have used exploding trucks, known in military circles as VBIEDs, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, in numerous attacks during the Mosul offensive and elsewhere in Iraq.

Speaking to reporters in Baghdad this week, U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Matt Isler said ISIS had adopted coercive new techniques in its use of suicide car bombs because the jihadists appear to be running out of willing drivers.

“We saw people being put by force in VBIEDs and chained in them to carry out the attacks,” he said.

“We’ve seen children put in VBIEDs as drivers, people that aren’t able to walk… I don’t know if they signed up for this service.”

The coalition first saw drivers being chained into trucks when Iraqi security forces approached the Tigris River as they cleared eastern Mosul, Isler said.

On the other hand, the United Nations issued a report stating that ISIS has been facing a financial crisis, which is the worst since its establishment.

The report, which was sent to the U.N. Security Council, explained that ISIS militants still represent a dangerous threat despite all the losses incurred on the battlefields in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya.

The report further noted that the financial situation of the terrorist group is deteriorating, forcing it to deal with a “budget crisis” due to the decline in illegal oil selling from $500 million to $260 million.

The U.N. said in the report that ISIS seeks new substitutes to compensate the financial losses, noting that it might resort to kidnapping a number of journalists, Red Cross or aid workers, who are playing a humanitarian role in areas liberated from the terrorist group, then demanding ransoms from their countries or organizations they belong to.