Senior officials of the terror group Islamic State (ISIS) are smartly using a massive shield against airstrikes: the Tabqa Dam in Syria.
High-ranking ISIS officials are hiding inside Syria's largest dam, knowing full well that their enemies will not dare launch airstrikes on their positions there since this will inevitably destroy the dam, causing massive floods that could devastate large areas in both Syria and Iraq.
The destruction of the dam, which measures 200 feet in height and almost three miles in length, would also cut the power supply in large parts of Iraq and much of eastern Syria.
The dam, which sources water from the Euphrates River and is located around 25 miles from the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, also reportedly serves as a hideout for high-value prisoners.
The information came from an official at Sound and Picture, an umbrella group of anti-ISIS activists in Syria.
In an interview with The New York Times, Ariel Ahram, an associate professor at Virginia Tech who has studied Middle East dams, stressed how important preserving the Tabqa Dam is for Syria and Iraq's water and power supply.
"That's an ecological disaster for Iraq and a humanitarian catastrophe for Syria," Ahram explained about the possible destruction of the vital facility.
Aaron Wolf, a specialist in water-resources policy, also warned about the horrifying possibility that ISIS members could blow up the dam in case their positions are seriously threatened by enemy forces.
"Of course, you worry. These aren't the people you want controlling basically the arteries of the region," Wolf, who works at Oregon State University, told The Wall Street Journal.
ISIS militants also used to control the smaller Tishreen Dam located downstream from Tabqa, but failed to defend it during an assault from an alliance of Kurdish People's Protection Units and Arab fighters last December.
