WATCH: Iraqi forces discover IS drone factory in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq (Kurdistan24) – Iraqi security forces on Saturday discovered a factory in northern Mosul used by the Islamic State (IS) to create different types of drones.

Masoud Mohammed, a Kurdistan24 correspondent embedded with the Iraqi forces inside Mosul, said the troops discovered a house in the Cairo neighborhood in northern Mosul that IS had turned into a drone factory.

“Da’esh was creating drones in this house,” Colonel Ismat from the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism forces told Kurdistan24, using the Arabic pejorative for IS.

“The drones were used to guide vehicles laden with explosives to target Iraqi and Peshmerga forces,” he added.

One of the Iraqi forces officers told Kurdistan24 some of the drones discovered had the ability to drop shells that were artificially created by IS militants.

“Sometimes, IS embeds explosive devices inside the drones and flies them to areas where the Iraqi or Peshmerga forces are,” the officer explained.

“IS intentionally drops the drone so when security forces grab it, the insurgents remotely detonate the explosives inside the device,” he added.

The Mosul military operation began on Oct. 17 and Peshmerga and Iraqi forces have already liberated large swaths of territory from the extremists.

The ongoing operation inside Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, aims to recapture the area IS has occupied since June 2014.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany