WATCH: IS military tactics uncovered in village, northeast Mosul

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – In a liberated village, Peshmerga forces recently discovered several military tactics used by the Islamic State (IS) against the Kurdish forces and the US-led coalition warplanes.

Peshmerga forces recently liberated the village of Small Tiskhrab in the northeast of Mosul as part of the military operation to free the city from the jihadist group under their control since June 2014.

Kurdistan24 correspondent Masoud Mohammed, accompanied with a Commander of Peshmerga forces in Tiskhrab, explores some of the tactics IS extremists in the area used against Peshmerga troops and the coalition warplanes.

One of the tactics was gathering barrels about 50-meters close to each other along the road in the village.

As Mohammed shows in the video, the barrels are filled with black oil. IS aimed to burn the oil and smoke up the sky to blur the ground vision for the coalition jets targeting their bases.

The Kurdistan24 correspondent shows IS had filled the barrels with black oil, but failed to burn them, as they may have run out of time to do so.

The second tactic was creating complicated underground tunnels so the militants could move easily from one place to another without letting the warplanes detect their movements.

In addition to the underground tunnels, IS created a guarding room for the house of an emir (senior leader) under trees so it would not be visible by the coalition jets. The house was also connected to an underground tunnel.

Inside the tunnels, Peshmerga confiscated IS weapons such as RPGs, and foods like dates, seeds, chocolate, and nuts.

“IS was paying IQD 2,000 [USD $1.7] per day to the workers for digging tunnels,” the Commander said. “Sometimes, IS used the prisoners to dig the tunnels for free.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany