ISIS Has Revived A 2,000 Year Old Terror Tactic To Spread Mass Panic: Bombs With Live Scorpions

The ISIS has reportedly taken a shine to a new terror tactic taken straight out of history books. Though the new method doesn’t blow up buildings, it is meant to spread mass panic. The ISIS is throwing bombs that contain live scorpions.

Canisters packed with scorpions are rigged to blow, and are being hurled into Iraqi towns. These canisters contain the poisonous varieties of the creatures, and when thrown from a distance, blast upon impact and scatter the scorpions. Needless to say, watching hoards of scorpions being flung in the air by the impact is quite a scary sight for the innocent local population, reported the Daily Mail.

Though the scorpion bombs might seem a modern day tactic to carefully spread panic but limit casualties, it was widely used by Iraqis fighting against the Roman Empire. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, ex-head of chemical and biological weapons for the Army and NATO, confirmed that ISIS has nearly perfected Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that have a very low impact upon explosion. Currently, the ISIS is flinging scorpions using IEDs that are about two feet in length. He added that scorpions are quite tough and survive the trip in an IED.

“Scorpions are robust – even if they are launched a couple of miles, when the canister breaks thousands are flung out and start crawling all around. Some scorpions are very poisonous but the main thing is creating fear.”

Hamish has just returned from Bagdad last week, and has seen such tactics being deployed in alarming frequency by the ISIS forces in and around Iraqi towns. He added that the scorpions and the bombs may not harm humans as normal IEDs, but are part of a psychological warfare, reports the International Business Times.

Interestingly, the ISIS drew inspiration from its ancestors, who fought the Romans. The biological weapon was used as far back as 198 AD, when Iraqis stuffed live scorpions into ceramic pots and hurled them at Roman armies marching on the fortress city of Hatra. Surprisingly, the method proved highly effective against the relatively modern armies of the Roman Empire. The Parthian city was held under siege for just 20 days by Emperor Septimius Severus, before the Roman military were driven out by such “live grenades.”

Armed to the teeth and fanatically driven to the bone, the ISIS has been wreaking havoc, and now has one more “deadly” weapon in its arsenal.

[Image Credit | Alamy]