ISIS militants are salvaging World War II explosives from Nazi landmines and British ammunition buried deep in the Sahara to wage war in Egypt and across northern Africa, according to a Newsweek report. In IED attack on an army convoy near Egypt's Red Sea coast that killed five soldiers was blamed on explosives made from old mines. “We’ve had at least 10 reports from the military of terrorists using old mines," Fathy el-Shazly, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and onetime Egyptian land mine clearance czar, is quoted as saying. While these militants have more sophisticated weapons at their disposal, occasional supply problems make it tempting to use the relics of Hitler's war instead. Some 17 million land mines are still reportedly stuck in the sands of northwest Egypt, dating back to the 1940s battles between the German and British armies.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 11, 2016 17:12 UTC