Video: Iraqi soldier rams into IS bomber, saving comrades

A video that reportedly captures the dramatic moment an Iraqi soldier saved his squad by driving his bulldozer into an incoming Islamic State group suicide bomber, has emerged this week.

Narrated

2 min read

The New Arab

18 May, 2017

Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul from IS almost seven months ago [Twitter]

A video that reportedly captures the dramatic moment an Iraqi soldier saved his squad by driving his bulldozer into an incoming Islamic State group suicide bomber, has emerged this week.

The footage, which was shot from the dash cam installed inside the driver's cabin, was taken in West Mosul where IS have been making their last stand against a massive operation to retake the Iraqi city.

It shows the driver deliberately ramming his bulldozer into an incoming IS car bomb in the narrow streets of the extremists' final Iraqi bastion.

"Sir, I stopped it," the driver, named in media reports as Mohammed Ali al-Shuwaili, can be heard saying as the smoke from the explosion fills his cabin.

"Thank God you're alright," his commander responds.

An image reportedly showing Shuwaili recovering in hospital with minor injuries was widely shared on social media this week with many people hailing the soldier's brave act.

The New Arab could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

Iraqi forces launched the massive operation to retake Mosul from IS nearly seven months ago, fighting their way into the jihadist-held city.

Baghdad forces first took the eastern side of the city before crossing the Tigris and attacking the more densely packed western section of Mosul.

In the course of the fighting, security forces have faced a seemingly endless waves of IS car bombs, which when detonated erupt into into towering fireballs.

Such attacks have featured heavily in the jihadi group's latest propaganda films.

Iraqi officers said on Tuesday that Iraqi forces have recaptured nearly 90 percent of west Mosul from IS, which is on the "brink of total defeat".

Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, told a news conference in Baghdad that IS now controls just over ten percent of west Mosul.

The drive to retake Mosul has been supported by a campaign of US-led coalition air raids in and around the city.

IS now controls just a handful of neighbourhoods around the Old City, one of the country's heritage jewels.

Half a million people are currently displaced as a result of the Battle for Mosul, and some 250,000 civilians are estimated to still be trapped inside the city's west.