Headcam footage shows IS fighters confused, fleeing

New footage claiming to show Islamic State fighters in battle reveals confusion and retreat as they take on Kurdish peshmerga troops in northern Iraq.

Vice News says the video was taken from the headcam of an IS fighter killed in March during a battle some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the city of Mosul, which has since June 2014 been in Islamic State hands.

Vice does not elaborate on how it came to acquire the footage.

In the video, a handful of fighters dressed in some form of sand-colored uniform are seen inside a military vehicle, scrambling to find the correct weaponry as they engage the peshmerga.

“Pass me another rocket,” says one. “A rocket, a rocket.”

The video then shows a hand reaching down to locate the rocket among a collection of bags, guns and other miscellaneous clutter.

“The rockets for [firing at] people or armored vehicles?” a frantic-sounding voice asks, before the hand opens a bag of what appear to be small rockets.

“Take it, Abu Abdullah,” another voice says.

The camera then cuts to a fighter apparently who is also yelling.

“The bullet casings are hitting us,” he shouts.

A fighter holding what appears to be a shoulder-held rocket launcher fires into the distance, showering the inside of the vehicle with debris.

“Good job, but you roasted us too,” says one of his companions as smoke from the launch fills the air.

“Where is the other rocket?” a fighter then asks. “Get me a rocket, a rocket.”

“What’s wrong with you, Abu Hajaar?” shouts one of the fighters. “Give me the bombs, Abu Abdullah,” he continues, before also reprimanding the latter for mistakenly using the wrong explosive.

After several attempts, the fuse of the bomb is clumsily ignited with what appears to be a Zippo lighter; a new blast again fills the open-topped vehicle with smoke, and the scramble for rockets resumes.

“Take the safety cap off the rocket,” one fighter instructs another, seconds before the vehicle is hit by a peshmerga rocket, killing the driver. The surviving IS fighters flee the vehicle and begin to fire on the enemy from positions on the ground. They then retreat from the battle.

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, was the first major city to fall into the hands of Islamic State militants during their blitz in June 2014, when the group swept across vast areas in the country’s north and west.

To this day, Mosul remains under control of IS as Iraqi forces — aided by airstrikes by the US-led international coalition, with support too from Shiite militiamen and Sunni pro-government fighters — battle to reclaim ground lost to the militants. Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces are fighting IS militants to the north and east of the city.

AP contributed to this report