IS takes advantage of sandstorm to seize Syria's main T-90A tank

IS rebels took advantage of a sandstorm to attack and captured a T-90A main battle tank abandoned by the Syrian government army.

The T-90A has just fallen into the hands of IS. Photo: Al Masdar News

The Islamic State (IS) militants yesterday released images of a T-90A main battle tank and a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle captured by their forces in the town of Mayadin, eastern Syria. The two vehicles belonged to the Syrian government army's 4th Armored Division, which is fighting near Deir ez-Zor province, Al Masdar News reported.

Syrian military sources said IS militants took advantage of a sandstorm to attack government positions. The defense forces were surprised and quickly retreated, leaving behind a lot of equipment.

Initially, IS rebels did not know that they had captured the modern T-90A, only claiming to have captured "T-72 tanks" from the Syrian government army. The T-90A version looks similar to the T-72 model, but is equipped with many advanced defense and fire control systems, making it many times more powerful than the T-72 tanks in service with the Syrian army and rebel forces in this country.

This is the third Syrian army T-90A to fall into the hands of rebels and IS militants. The first two were captured by al-Qaeda in Syria last year in a badly damaged state, almost incapacitated. During the counter-offensive in Hama province, the Syrian army recaptured one vehicle and destroyed the other.

However, the T-90A that fell into the hands of IS is still in good technical condition with full combat capabilities. This will pose a great threat to the Syrian government army in the battles near Deir ez-Zor, as well as making it difficult to destroy or recover the T-90A tank.

The town of Mayadin in southeast Deir ez-Zor (also known as Deir al-Zour). Graphic: BBC.

The Syrian army has received dozens of modern T-90A tanks from Russia since late 2015. They are assigned to the government's elite armored units, fighting in most of the key battlefields in Syria. However, some of them have been shot down or fell into enemy hands, because the crew abandoned the vehicle when attacked without destroying the equipment inside.

According to VNE