A firsthand look at ISIS' use of deadly car bombs

DUHOK, Iraq -- President Obama's strategy to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is playing out on the front lines in northern Iraq, where our CBS News team traveled to less than half a mile from ISIS territory and witnessed firsthand how determined and deadly the terror group can be.

Colonel Badal Bandi and his Kurdish forces have been fighting to hold a front line against ISIS outside of Mosul for more than a year.

"They attack whenever they can, sometimes three or four nights in a row," Bandi said.

In fact Bandi told us that very morning that three suicide car bombers charged toward their outpost. His soldiers were able to kill the drivers before they detonated their explosives.

But two car bombs remained there, not 50 yards away, posing a deadly threat to the soldiers.

Here on the front line, the "bomb squad" is a 50-caliber gunman. He fired rounds into one vehicle, until it went up in a plume of smoke.

He then opened up on the car much closer to us. We watched from a sniper hole in the bunker until finally, he made a direct hit.

The force wave of the massive car bomb was enough to knock the wind out of us. The bunker filled with choking dust.

Debris rained down on top of us - shrapnel from the bomb and the twisted remains of the vehicle blown sky high after the explosion.

Everybody's ears were ringing, but the next sound was laughter. It's a happier ending when car bombs blow up on the other side of the front line.

Being so close to those huge car bombs gives an idea of the kind of destruction they can cause in civilian areas and against forces here, and why they are the most feared ISIS weapon on the battlefield. This is happening every day.