ISIL using commercial drones against coalition forces

The Hill:
A U.S.-led military coalition is increasingly destroying drones controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The terrorist group has begun using commercial drones on the battlefield to spy on Iraqi forces and is fashioning some of them into bombs. The coalition has destroyed two ISIS drones within the last week.

The coalition destroyed one drone on Wednesday in airstrikes near Hit and destroyed one just five days earlier near Mosul.

U.S. troops are planning to deploy to the Qayyarah air base, only about 60 miles south of Mosul, ISIS's stronghold in Iraq.

U.S. Central Command said in an email Thursday that the drone near Mosul was a surveillance drone, likely obtained commercially.

Statistics on armed drones, however, are classified, and it is not publicly known how many armed ISIS drones have been destroyed to date.

On April 30, the coalition destroyed an ISIS drone "site" near Hit. And on April 1, the coalition destroyed an ISIS drone near Qayyarah, where the U.S. forces will be staged to retake Mosul. The coalition also destroyed two ISIS drones in 2015.

Centcom said it is aware ISIS is using both commercial and improvised bombs.
...
So far the drones used are relatively small.  It is an added problem for forces in Iraq and Syria that can effect their ability to maneuver undetected.  It si not clear whether the drones used have night vision capability, but they are becoming commercially available too.

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