Special British and US force tracks IS killer drones
MILITARY commanders have formed a top-secret forensic unit to tackle Islamic State drones being used to kill coalition forces around Mosul and Raqqa.
Military commanders have formed a forensic unit to tackle Islamic State drones
It follows fears that IS militants will increase the use of drones as US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces prepare an assault on the last IS stronghold Raqqa, Syria “within four weeks”.
The drones, bought “off the shelf”, are modified with home-made pressure switches to allow them to drop bombs.
A handful of jihadis are modifying the drones. The operation, led by British and US military intelligence, examines drones to identify those weaponising them.
Jihadis modify the bombs with home-made pressure switches which allow them to drop bombs
Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach recently fl ew out to the new unit’s headquarters at Camp Arifjan, deep in the Kuwaiti desert, to be given a briefing.
The head of Britain’s armed forces was talked through the process of forensic investigation by American and British officers and shown a captured IS drone.
In the past three months IS has launched hundreds of drone attacks around Mosul, Iraq.
Head of Britain's military Air Marshall Sir Stuart Peach visits the Coalition Exploitation centre
ISIS' Mosul headquarters bombed by coalition forces
Checklists found in Iraq revealed the way IS drone operators work, listing tools they should carry to fi x them, pre-flight checks and tick-boxes identifying mission success or failure.
Crashed drones are captured by UK special forces, working with American special operations teams in Syria and Iraq, and passed to the new unit.
British specialists who honed their craft in Helmand, Afghanistan, work with military forensic teams to develop a “biometric chain” to trace the origin of components and how many “switches” were made by the same person.
The US and British intelligence-led operation examines drones to identify those weaponising them
The battle to drive the 2,000 IS out of Mosul is nearing the end after eight months, with dug-in militants now controlling just 10 per cent of the city.
IS claims to have deployed 400, mainly British and foreign, suicide bombers and killed 9,000 Iraq troops since October.
Last night the Syrians announced an offensive against the Raqqa HQ within the month, after President Trump approved arms shipments to the Kurdish element of the force.