(Baghdad) News is slowly filtering in of the losses the Iraqi army have sustained due to the advance of ISIS these past few weeks. According to the New York Times, ISIS have destroyed half of the Iraqi army and inflicted $10 billion in losses.
Jane's Defence Weekly has expanded on this and revealed that 28 Iraqi Army Abrams tanks had been damaged in fighting with militants, five of them suffering full armour penetration when hit by ATGMs.
The United States supplied 140 refurbished M1A1 Abrams tanks to Iraq between 2010 and 2012. However, unlike US tanks, the export versions sold to Iraq do not contain the extra Uranium lining which is battle proven to stop virtually any anti-tank weapons from penetrating the hull. That said, ISIS have been posting video clips of their successes against the Iraqi army, and a couple of them show ISIS members actually sneaking up to Iraqi armour and affixing explosives charges or even lobbing hand grenades inside open hatches, illuminating to all that the Iraqi military are failing to support their armour with infantry. Pretty basic tactics, and yet, as per usual, an Arab army fails at that.
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| Iraqi M1A1 tank on fire. |
The United States supplied 140 refurbished M1A1 Abrams tanks to Iraq between 2010 and 2012. However, unlike US tanks, the export versions sold to Iraq do not contain the extra Uranium lining which is battle proven to stop virtually any anti-tank weapons from penetrating the hull. That said, ISIS have been posting video clips of their successes against the Iraqi army, and a couple of them show ISIS members actually sneaking up to Iraqi armour and affixing explosives charges or even lobbing hand grenades inside open hatches, illuminating to all that the Iraqi military are failing to support their armour with infantry. Pretty basic tactics, and yet, as per usual, an Arab army fails at that.
