--- title: "Watch this EOD badass dismantle an IED with a pickaxe and pliers" date: "2021-09-14" modified: "2021-09-14" authors: - name: "Tessa Robinson" job_title: "Chief Emeritus, Former CIA" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/tessarobinson/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/ied-dismantle-pliers/" categories: - "History" - "Tactical" - "War History" tags: - "ISIS" --- # Watch this EOD badass dismantle an IED with a pickaxe and pliers ![]() We're spending a lot of time on the internet these days watching plenty of useless information -- cat videos, TikToks, ClickBait, all the Netflix in the land. Finally, here's something useful, with a heart-stopping, compelling element: an EOD badass dismantling IEDs with only a pickaxe and pliers and no protective equipment. **DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. OR ANYWHERE.** --- https://twitter.com/HKaaman/statuses/1250100750803447808 Researcher Hugo Kaaman posted a clip of a "Peshmerga EOD guy" dismantling IEDs with only a pickaxe and a pair of pliers (Did we mention? Do not try this!). After a little more digging, another Twitter user cited that the subject was Major Jamal Bawari who is/was a part of a Peshmerga EOD unit. [BBC Four, Storyville]() did a documentary on 'Crazy Fakhir', a Kurdish colonel in the Iraqi army and legendary bomb disposal expert, who was in the same unit as Jamal, titled "Hurt Locker Hero" in 2018. The description of the documentary on BBC Four is: *The heart-stopping story of 'Crazy Fakhir', a Kurdish colonel in the Iraqi army and legendary bomb disposal expert who single-handedly disarmed thousands of landmines across the country with just a pocket knife and a pair of wire clippers.* *Between the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the chaos and destruction wreaked by IS ten years later, Fahkir's unwavering bravery saved thousands of lives throughout Iraq. 'Hurt Locker Hero' tells Fakhir's story through the raw and visceral amateur footage captured by his soldiers on a camcorder intended for filming family occasions. Instead, it records Fakhir endlessly snipping wires, searching family homes and digging out roadside IEDs, insisting it's too dangerous to wait hours for the highly trained American bomb disposal teams to arrive.* *Whilst their father and husband becomes a hero, Fahkir's wife and eight children struggle to make ends meet and worry endlessly about his safety. Fakhir will be remembered as the man who risked his life to save others -'If I fail, only I die, but if I succeed, I can save hundreds of people.'.* This is definitely better than cat videos. ## Author Tessa Robinson served as Editor in Chief for We Are The Mighty for 5.5 glorious years from January 2020 - May 2025. She spent over a decade with the federal government working in emergency management before reinventing herself as a writer courtesy of military life. Prior to WATM, Robinson served as Managing Editor for Spouse & Family at Military.com and Branded Content at Task & Purpose. She's the author of the New York Times Deployment Diary and founder of Humans on the Homefront. When she's not scrolling through social media aimlessly looking for stories, she's coaching her daughter's basketball team or playing baseball with her son. ### Author social links [LinkedIn]()