US, UK REFUSING To Bomb Islamic State?
Islamic State chiefs are cowering inside an enormous dam – knowing anti-terrorist jets will not bomb it for fear of unleashing a giant flood.
Experts say a deluge would swamp swathes of Syria and Iraq if the Tabqa Dam – which is 2.8 miles long and 600ft high – is breached.
The jihadist terrorists are believed to be hiding high-value prisoners at the dam, which doubles as a bomb-proof bunker for IS bosses.
Dam expert Ariel Ahram, an associate professor at Virginia Tech university in the US, said: “If the dam is ruptured, it would flood large parts of Iraq and mean that there’s no electricity for all of eastern Syria.”
Islamic State jihadists
“That’s an ecological disaster for Iraq and a humanitarian catastrophe for Syria.”
The Tabqa Dam is 40km west of Raqqa, Islamic State’s Syrian headquarters, and has been under the group’s control since 2013.
Dams in arid regions of Iraq and Syria represent power.
At least 11 major dams control the flow of the Euphrates in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, many of them supporting irrigation and producing energy for areas that would likely remain unpopulated otherwise.
Islamic State uses access to water to control civilians
Some Middle East analysts and US officials fear Islamic State could detonate a dam if it felt its power was slipping, said Aaron Wolf, an Oregon State University specialist in water resources policy, conflict resolution and Middle East geopolitics.
“These aren’t the people you want controlling basically the arteries of the region.”
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Islamic State continues to control large swathes of Iraq and Syria and has a considerable presence in Libya and the Sinai peninsula in Egypt.
Boko Haram has also pledged allegiance to the jihadist death cult, turning northern parts of Nigeria into one of the deadliest conflict zones in the world.
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