Driverless Car Bombs, Sophisticated Weapons Systems: Daesh Goes Hi-Tech

NEW DELHI: The Islamic State (also known as ISIS and Daesh) has been developing sophisticated weapons systems, previously thought to be a virtually impossible feat for terror groups without a military infrastructure.

Footage obtained by Sky News shows that the Islamic State can now recommission thousands of missiles assumed by western governments to have been redundant. The group is also developing homemade thermal battery for surface-to-air missiles. Heat-seeking warheads can be used to attack passenger and military aircraft with 99 percent accuracy.

“For decades terror groups, including the IRA, had these weapons but storing them and maintaining the thermal battery - a key component to the warhead - was very difficult. It seems that IS scientists have got round the problem, and that revelation will shock the world of international security,” Sky News stated.

(Photo credit: Sky News)

Additionally, the militant group has developed fully working remote controlled cars to act as mobile bombs. The cars are fitted with “drivers” -- mannequins with self-regulating thermostats to produce the heat signature of humans, allowing the car bombs to evade sophisticated scanning machines that protect military and government buildings.

The videos were discovered when an Islamic State militant was captured by the Free Syrian Army, with over eight hours of unedited training videos on him. The FSA passed the material to Sky News but was not aware of the importance of the videos, described by a weapons adviser to the British military as an intelligence "gold mine".

The videos were all taken at what is being dubbed as a Daesh tech “university” -- with Sky News since using aerial and satellite imagery to identify its location.

(Photo credit: Sky News)

Major Chris Hunter, a former bomb technician in the special forces and adviser to the British military, tells Sky that he was shocked at some of the developments revealed in the videos.

He said: "I think this is one of the most significant intelligence finds in terms of Daesh.

"What we've seen with their typical propaganda videos is they're very, very high quality.

"They're designed, they're produced to inspire people and prospectively touch the nerves of anybody who is viewing them; they're done in a very specific way.

"With this training footage it's very clearly purely designed to pass on information - to pass on the progress in the research and development areas - and it gives us a very good insight into where they are now, what they're aspiring to do and crucially the diversity of the types of threats we might face.

"So I would say it's an intel gold mine."

(Photo credit: Sky News)

In Turkey an IS defector confirmed to Sky News that a top secret training programme was known about in Raqqa, his home town. He confirmed the programme was designed for attacks in Europe and further afield.

The defector told Sky News: "Videoing and documenting this training programme was meant for Europe to cause huge damage.

"If it was meant internally (inside Syria) they could send someone to set an explosive device or wire a car as they are able to do this (openly).

"But doing such a programme and documenting it was meant to target a large number of people and in more than one location, of course it wasn't meant either for Syria or Iraq."

Sky News alerted the British government, which responded with the statement, “Daesh will use all measures at their disposal to cause harm, and Britain will never be cowed by such terrorists. Our values are so much stronger than theirs. It will take time but this is an organisation that is losing territory and will be defeated.”