Iraqi police displayed 23 vehicles that had been turned into car bombs and also an anti-aircraft gun, all captured from Islamic State militants during the battle for the city of Mosul.
The vehicles shown to the media were mostly civilian cars, covered in thick metal armor, with small glass ports for a driver to see through, and had been equipped with bombs.
They appear similar to vehicles used in apparent suicide attacks shown in Islamic State propaganda.
Many had been painted in camouflage or blue, the color of Iraqi Federal Police vehicles, in a bid to fool surveillance aircraft into mistaking them for Iraqi forces’ vehicles.
“Heroes of the Emergency Rapid Division and the Federal Police seized these cars in successful night raids,” Iraqi Federal Police captain Bassam Hillo Kadhim said.
Most eye-catching among the vehicles was a tank turret, complete with its gun, mounted on the back of a large truck, which police officials said had been designed to target military aircraft and ground troops from a distance.
Iraqi forces plan to destroy the vehicles.
On Friday Iraqi forces were still facing pockets of resistance from Islamic State in Mosul’s Old City, four days after the prime minister declared victory over the militants.
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