The terror group is digging up old Nazi land mines and bombs across Egypt as a way to beef up their weapons arsenal, according to a report.
The Islamic State and other jihadist groups have been scouring the deserts of northwest Egypt where more than 17 million World War II-era land mines are buried in what is likely the largest un-detonated land mine field in the world, Newsweek reported.
Military and civilian officials in Cairo said ISIS and the other terror extremist groups are using the components of the old land mines to make lethal bombs and improvised explosive devices or IEDs, according to the magazine.
“We’ve had at least 10 reports from the military of terrorists using old mines,” Fathy el-Shazly, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia told Newsweek. “Even now, these things trouble us in different ways.”
El-Shazly, Egypt’s ex-land mine clearance czar, said that the tactic started in 2004 when extremists used old land mines to craft seven bombs, which killed 34 people in the Sinai resort of Taba.
The land mines were planted by Hitler’s troops during World War II.
The Egyptian government plans to rid the Saharan mine fields of all the leftover weapons within the next three years.
nypost.com/
