The Islamic State (ISIS) has gone to the dogs—figuratively and even literally.
In what appears to be a sign that it is at its wit's end in coping with battlefield defeats in Mosul, ISIS has apparently "commissioned" even stray dogs and sheep to do its fighting by strapping them with bombs.
One such booby-trapped dog was caught by members of al-Hashd al-Shaabi, or the Popular Mobilization Units, an Iraqi pro-government militia, which posted a video of the poor canine strapped with improvised explosives, Iraqi News reported.
The militia said ISIS is using booby-trapped animals against advancing Iraqi security forces in western Mosul.
"This is the latest from Daesh (ISIS), abusing an animal," one militia fighter says in the video, pointing to the dog, which is wired with three bottles filled with explosive materials. "What sin did it commit?" another fighter asks.
Earlier, Iraqi authorities said ISIS fighters booby-trapped sheep to hinder the attack by militia forces on a village near the jihadist stronghold town of Tal Afar.
ISIS has been using booby-trapped vehicles, landmines, weaponised drones and human suicide bombers in fighting the advancing Iraqi government forces, according to Iraqi News.
The source said the jihadist group has also resorted to deceptive tactics such as using decoy military equipment and camouflage-dressed mannequins to mislead its enemies.
Meanwhile, ISIS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has delivered a speech ordering his fighters to flee urban areas in Mosul, in apparent admission of defeat to U.S.-backed Iraqi forces besieging the city, Iraqi News reported on Wednesday.
Sources said al-Baghdadi made his "farewell speech" to his fighters, ordering them to "flee and hide in mountainous areas" in Iraq and Syria, and kill themselves if encircled by Iraqi troops.
As al-Baghdadi spoke, Iraqi troops closed the last main exit in the ISIS stronghold of western Mosul, according to Iraqi News.
Iraqi government troops have been pushing closer to central Mosul, where various strategic government facilities are located. They earlier retook the city's airport and a large military camp. The troops recaptured the eastern side of Mosul in late January after three months of fighting.
Top U.S. and Iraqi military officials said the ISIS defences in Mosul are fast collapsing amid the continuing coalition airstrikes and the Iraqi ground offensive. They predicted the recapture of western Mosul in six months.
