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I have a close friend that is is the Army Corps of Engineers at the dam. Despite being deployed to the dam months ago, she's seen sporadic time at the dam due t

I have a close friend that is is the Army Corps of Engineers at the dam. Despite being deployed to the dam months ago, she's seen sporadic time at the dam due to ISIS in the area. Every time they even get close the higher ups decide to evacuate the American engineers, can't say what's been decided for the others. During the recent Mosul Offensive, they were away from the dam the entire time. She was also telling me that during the time that ISIS held the dam, they managed to booby trap the entire place. They had multiple Iraqi workers killed in bathrooms from traps set. However, ISIS didn't manage any real structural damage to the dam.

gpm 10y ago
> ISIS didn't manage any real structural damage to the dam. This makes it sound like they were intentionally trying to destroy the damn, were they? I'm not an expert but it seems like it should be easy for a military group controlling a damn to blow it up if they wanted to. Though the article mentions that it was built to be resistant against air strikes, so maybe not?
- hueving 10y ago
  Particularly since the article mentions that the electrical generation from the dam puts money in ISIS's pockets.
- griffinkelly 10y ago
  She said all the booby trapping happened in the last days as the US was about to recapture the dam, so it was hastily done. That being said, it did slow operations as they then had to sweep the entire dam after they realized what happened. She said it would have been pretty difficult for them to cause significant structural damage, because as mentioned it was 'bomb proof' and as stated they were making money up until the very end in selling electricity.