The REAL road warriors: 'Mad Max' battle buses and tanks built by Kurdish fighters to repel ISIS soldiers in Syria
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Innovative: The peshmerga troops were forced to take the initiative and create their own armoured vehicles after the far better equipped ISIS jihadists repeatedly got the better of the Kurds' Soviet-era military fleet
Design: The Kurdish forces have used their homemade armoured vehicles - which are bright and elaborately decorated - to keep ISIS advances in check, and in some cases even force them to retreat
Flying the flag: Despite the odds being against them, peshmerga forces have bravely fought back against the estimated 31,000 ISIS militants operating in Syria and Iraq
Strong resemblance: The converted Kurdish vehicles look similar to the heavily-armoured lorries in the 1979 dystopian action film Mad Max (pictured)
In order to resist ISIS' high-tech firepower, the Kurdish forces have converted tractors and other farm equipment into heavily-armoured vehicles fitted aging Soviet-era guns.
Previously troops from the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria had little more than rifles and flak jackets - making them incredibly vulnerable in the face of heavily-armed ISIS terrorists.
Much of the weaponry and military equipment currently in the hands of the jihadists was gathered after thousands of members of the U.S. trained and expensively equipped Iraqi army melted away in the face of a lightning advance by just a few hundred ISIS militants in June.
As the soldiers fled the scene, they left behind millions of pounds worth of top-of-the-range and barely used equipment - all of which was quickly swept up by ISIS.
Since then the Kurdish peshmerga forces have carried out the defence of much of northern Syria and Iraq, despite the fact many of the militants only know how to operate clunky, decades-old Soviet-era weapons and are hugely under-resourced in terms of ammunition and protective equipment.
Homemade: In order to resist ISIS' high-tech firepower, the Kurdish forces have converted tractors and other farm equipment into heavily-armoured vehicles fitted aging Soviet-era guns
Elaborate: Previously troops from the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria had little more than rifles and flak jackets - making them incredibly vulnerable in the face of heavily-armed ISIS terrorists
Force: One place in which the vehicles have been deployed is Kobane - the small Syrian town that has been besieged by ISIS militants for a week
Brave: Kurdish peshmerga forces have carried out the defence of much of northern Syria and Iraq, despite the fact many of the militants only know how to operate clunky, decades-old Soviet-era weapons and are hugely under-resourced in terms of ammunition and protective equipment
The Kurdish forces have used their homemade armoured vehicles - which are bright and elaborately decorated - to keep ISIS advances in check, and in some cases even force them to retreat.
One place in which the vehicles have been deployed is Kobane - the small Syrian town that has been besieged by ISIS militants for a week.
The Kurdish fighters in Iraq said that although they had been promised equipment from the U.S. and European countries, but so far most of the shipments included food - something they need far less urgently than weapons.
Last week, one Kobane resident told the Independent: 'Don't send us food, we don't need food...we will eat mud if we have to. Send us weapons, send us peshmerga.'
But while they continue waiting for the Western weapons to materialise, the Kurdish forces are reliant more than ever on their makeshift armoured vehicles to protect their population from the murderous fanatics who pose such a threat to their existence.
In recent weeks hundreds of thousands of Syrian Kurds have been forced to flee across the border into Turkey, as Isis launched an onslaught into the autonomous Kurdish territory in northern Syria.
Defence: While they wait for Western weapons to materialise, the peshmerga forces are more reliant than ever on their makeshift armoured vehicles to protect the Kurdish population from murderous ISIS fanatics
Bulk: The Kurdish fighters in Iraq said they had been promised equipment from the U.S. and European countries
Power: Brave Kurdish soldiers battling Islamic State militants in northern Syria have converted tractors and lorries into tanks by adding metal plates to create Mad Max-style road warriors
'THEY SAID IT COULD NEVER HAPPEN AND NOW IT ALMOST HAS': ISIS MILITANTS FIGHTING IRAQI GOVERNMENT FORCES 'JUST ONE MILE FROM BAGHDAD' DESPITE WESTERN AIRSTRIKES AGAINST THE TERROR GROUP
Fierce fighting has been reported on the outskirts of Baghdad where ISIS militants are attempting to seize control of the Iraqi capital - despite ongoing Western airstrikes against the terror group.
The fighting is taking place just one mile to the west of the city, with government forces desperately trying to hold off the militants, who allegedly killed up to 1,000 soldiers during clashes yesterday.
ISIS have held a number of towns and villages close to the Iraqi capital since earlier in the year, when government troops melted away following a lightning advance in the west of the country - enabling the terrorist group to seize further swaths of territory for their so-called caliphate.
Jihadists: Fierce fighting has been reported on the outskirts of Baghdad where ISIS militants are attempting to seize control of the Iraqi capital, despite ongoing Western airstrikes against the terror group (pictured)
Approaching: Reports that ISIS militants are now just one mile from Baghdad came from the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East - an organisation supporting the work of Canon Andrew White
Reports that ISIS militants are now just one mile from Baghdad came from the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East - an organisation supporting the work of Canon Andrew White, vicar of the city's St George's Church, the only Anglican church in Iraq.
In a message posted on Facebook, the group said: 'The Islamic State are now less than 2km away from entering Baghdad. They said it could never happen and now it almost has.
'Obama says he overestimated what the Iraqi Army could do. Well you only need to be hear a very short while to know they can do very very little,' they added.
The claims were backed up by Canon White himself, who shared the message just hours after he had earlier suggested the group were approximately six miles from the centre of Baghdad.
Location: The militants are understood to have had their advance halted by airstrikes yesterday at Ameriyat Al-Falluja yesterday - a small city about 18 miles south of Fallujah and 40 miles west of Baghdad. But the clashes did not force the bulk of the fighters - with many of them now having made their way to the Baghdad suburbs
On a mission: The RAF jets seek out their terror targets in Iraq - which they failed to find and bomb, again
In a message he also posted on Facebook, Canon White had said: 'The Islamic State are now within 10km of entering Baghdad. Over a 1000 Iraqi troops were killed by them yesterday, things are so bad. As I said all the military air strikes are doing nothing. If ever we needed your prayer it is now.'
The militants are understood to have had their advance halted by airstrikes yesterday at Ameriyat Al-Falluja yesterday - a small city about 18 miles south of Fallujah and 40 miles west of Baghdad.
But the clashes did not force the bulk of the fighters - with many of them now having made their way to the Baghdad suburbs for this morning's fighting.
DAILY MAIL
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on 15:04.
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