Rebels Blow Up Turkish Armored Car (Video)

A video, showing the process of blowing up of a Turkish armored vehicle Cobra by a radio-controlled land mine, laid on the road, has been published online.

A video, showing the process of blowing up of a Turkish armored vehicle Cobra by a radio-controlled land mine, laid on the road, was published online on Friday. The incident took place in the south-east of Turkey. The whole crew of the armored car, five military, was killed.

The land mine has been laid into the drainage pipe. The reasons for the military death were the lack of devices, jamming such mines, on their vehicle, and the negligent of their colleague, who has been sent to recce.

The patrol armored vehicle of the Turkish army stopped before turning. The place for laying the land mine has been chosen well – there was not a detour on this road section. A military left the Cobra and started to inspect a suspicious bend. He looked around the bushes at the side of the road, came down from the slope, and looked into the drainage pipe. Not seeing anything suspicious, the soldier got on the road at the moment, when the vehicle has started to move. When the armored car was over the drainage pipe, there was an explosion. The explosion was so strong that the wheels of the vehicle were scattered on the mountain slopes.

Otokar Cobra is an infantry mobility vehicle developed by Turkish firm Otokar with the participation of the US company AM General. The vehicle was put into service in 1997. According to the manufacturer, the steel body of the car provides protection against small arms fire, artillery shell shrapnel, and to a certain degree against anti-personnel/tank mines and IEDs. The armored car are widely used by the Turkish army in the fight against Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country.