Iraq develops gun-wielding robot to combat Islamic State

Alrobot — Arabic for robot — can be operated by laptop and radio link from as far as one kilometer

Iraq has been in the throes of violent conflict for a over decade now.

After a majority of coalition forces pulled out from the country and the advent of the Islamic State, Iraqis were pretty much left on their own. It is in this context that Iraqi security forces have turned to machines and developed a gun-wielding robotic vehicle to take on the IS, according to the Baghdad Post.



A video posted on YouTube shows a vehicle about the size of a small car equipped with four cameras, an automatic machine gun and a launcher for Russian-made Katyusha rockets. The vehicle, which is loosely dubbed Alrobot — Arabic for robot — can be operated by laptop and radio link from as far as one kilometre.

It is still unclear when and where the robot was deployed.“The armoured robot seems to be part of the Iraqi military arsenal in the offensive to liberate Mosul from ISIS,” Middle East Media Research Institute deputy director Elliot Zweig commented after watching the video.



Although it is also not clear who developed the machine, the Baghdad Post credits two brothers with building Alrobot but doesn’t name them. According to a Twitter user @nomorestans, the robot made its debut at the IQDEX weapons conference in Baghdad earlier this year.

Since details about the robot are scarce, one can only wonder how often Iraq intends to use it and if the country's government is planning to build more.


This article originally appeared on Defense One.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments section below