De acordo com a novelização oficial do filme, o tanque (juntamente com todos os outros Stark-tech) foi operado por elementos do grupo terrorista Ten Rings.
Era um dos produtos Stark que caíram em suas mãos como resultado de ...
...their alliance with Stane...
... e podemos razoavelmente supor que sua destruição resultou na morte de um punhado de bandidos, já que não havia guloseimas na área.
Tony lifted off again, heading back toward the town, when a missile blew him out of the sky. His armor handled the impact, but his sensors and navigation systems were scrambled for a brief moment. When he had them reset, he locked in on the truck that had fired the missile and destroyed it with a repulsor blast. Then he strode through the Ten Rings encampment and destroyed all the old Stark weaponry he could find, setting off a series of enormous explosions that echoed throughout the valley.
It felt good to settle some scores on Yinsen’s behalf, and also to get the local people out from under the tyranny of the Ten Rings. But before Iron Man could enjoy the victory, a tank shell shattered the building next to him. Tony staggered as tons of bricks and mortar rained down on his armor. The refugees, who had crept out of hiding to watch Iron Man, scurried back to safety. Then the tank itself rumbled into view, knocking down makeshift hovels as it came. It trained its turret cannon toward Iron Man as he rose to his feet. Tony studied the tank’s schematic on his heads-up display. The tank was Stark designed, and his computer files showed him everything about it, including its weaknesses.
