Improvised explosives becoming more common in Iraq -The Hill

[Rose Siding]

snip>
"They've gone up exponentially in number and they're getting more powerful all the time," said Lt. Col. Michael Kurella, whose 24th Infantry Regiment's First Battalion patrols the western half of this northern Iraq city that has the highest number of attacks by insurgents of any city in Iraq.
....
When his battalion arrived in Iraq last October from Fort Lewis, Wash., it didn't find a single IED while patrolling the streets of Mosul. But in November, it found three, followed by 15 in December, 50 in January, and 134 in February. One of his soldiers was killed when one of his unit's heavily armored Stryker vehicles was destroyed, and many more have been injured.

"We're still getting plenty of detonations, it's almost constant," said Col. Kurella, whose battalion has already earned 182 Purple Heart medals, given to those injured in combat.
....
Christie's buddy, Specialist Donald Armino, also 24, agrees that IEDs are more numerous and powerful than a few months ago. "They're getting a lot bigger and a lot more sophisticated," he said, often concealing them more cleverly and magnifying their power by tying a half dozen or more 120-mm mortar shells together and setting them off by remote control, or using shaped charges that can penetrate six inches of steel.

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/032305/explosives.html

[slackmaster]

1. Sooner or later they'll run out of old military ordnance

They'll be forced to use fertilizer instead.

[leftchick]

5. nah....

that is when the sympathetic surrounding countries start helping out the resistance. That is what scares the crapouta me!

[ixion]

2. yes, well, that 400+ tonnes of explosive that was looted

is probably being a big help in that area.

I guess that's the messy side to freedom. :eyes:

[leftchick]

3. Why that is impossible!!!!

I am at my parents' home this week and get to watch faux 24/7!! Iraq is going GREAT!! They tell us that all the good news is soooo downplayed. Attacks on our troops are almost NIL!

Warning, I may be brain damaged before I get back home on Sunday!

:banghead:

[Viking12]

4. It's a sign of progress. Rumsfeld told me so. n/t

[ashmanonar]

6. yes, the insurgency is progressing quite well.

or was that not what he meant?

:banghead:

[Rose Siding]

7. A visiting general was said to be "upbeat"

Typo for "beat up" maybe?

[ashmanonar]

8. heh.

who knows. this newspeak gets more and more convoluted every day.