According to an Iraqi security source, the Islamic State (ISIS) still has part of its fleet of self-manufactured drones after ISIS fighters retreating from territories recaptured by the Iraqi military managed to take the drones with them into the desert. "The drones," said the source, "are among the most dangerous weapons used by the organization, and will replace suicide bombers in its future operations." He added that "there are dozens of [ISIS] bases in [Iraq's] western desert, from which it is trying to smuggle drones and [their] control mechanisms into the cities to carry out attacks and operations... The organization has [already] used special drone-mounted bombs, including bombs containing chlorine in a plastic container, which are locally manufactured in the organization's workshops." The source named the two top ISIS operatives in charge of drone manufacture, one of them a French national: "A man known as Abu Mus'ab Al-Shami, who is likely still alive, is one of the most prominent experts manufacturing these bombs. Another is a foreign fighter called Abu Abdallah Al-Muhajir, an Algerian with French citizenship, who took part in manufacturing and developing bombs and [other] mechanisms used in military operations."
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