Tri-Service

Death By Selfie: ISIS HQ Destroyed Using Social Media

A selfie posted online by a member of the Islamic State group just cost the terror organization a headquarters building in Syria.

USAF General Hawk Carlise told specialist website military.com that specialists in Florida monitoring IS social media traffic this week were able to use information gleaned from the metadata in the militant's photo into a successful air strike less than 24 hours after it was posted.

“The guys that were working down out of Hurlburt, they’re combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command. And in some social media, open forum, bragging about the command and control capabilities for Daesh, ISIL. And these guys go: ‘We got an in.’

So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three [Joint Direct Attack Munitions] take that entire building out.”

Meanwhile, more than 100 coalition airstrikes have targeted Islamic State in the past week.

RAF Tornados and Reapers have been playing a key role in the multi-national operation over Iraq and Syria since it began last year.

Many of the targets are now believed to be American-made vehicles which were once donated to the Iraqi forces, but that have now fallen into militant hands.

Forces TV's Will Inglis has been following the campaign.