NYT: Iraqi Rebels Refine Bomb Skills, Pushing Toll of G.I.'s Higher

[Pirate Smile]

By DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: June 22, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 21 - American casualties from bomb attacks in Iraq have reached new heights in the last two months as insurgents have begun to deploy devices that leave armored vehicles increasingly vulnerable, according to military records.


An attack on an American military convoy on June 14 destroyed a tractor-trailer. Insurgents are using more sophisticated bombs for such attacks.

Last month there were about 700 attacks against American forces using so-called improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, the highest number since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the American military command in Iraq and a senior Pentagon military official. Attacks on Iraqis also reached unprecedented levels, Lt. Gen. John Vines, a senior American ground commander in Iraq, told reporters on Tuesday.

The surge in attacks, the officials say, has coincided with the appearance of significant advancements in bomb design, including the use of "shaped" charges that concentrate the blast and give it a better chance of penetrating armored vehicles, causing higher casualties.

Another change, a senior military officer said, has been the detonation of explosives by infrared lasers, an innovation aimed at bypassing electronic jammers used to block radio-wave detonators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/international/middleeast/22bomb.html?hp&ex=1119412800&en=35434288bdfcb1b2&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Pirate Smile]

1. Armored vehicles don't seem to help that much anymore:

"Hundreds of armored Humvees have been rushed to Iraq over the past year, and Pentagon officials say unarmored vehicles are now confined to bases. Still, five marines were killed this week near Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad, when their vehicle hit an I.E.D. Earlier this month, five marines were killed after their vehicle struck a bomb in Haqlaniya, about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad.

A senior Marine officer with access to classified reports from the field said that the vehicles involved in the two fatal attacks were armored Humvees but that the bombs "were so big that there was little left of the Humvees that were hit." '

[saigon68]

13. 3000 ponds of stuff will pretty much wreck any vehicle.

FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH.

[UpInArms]

2. maybe our military should have secured those explosives

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?file=article&name=News&op=modload&sid=916

How bad is the disappearance of the explosives? Very bad. It took less than a pound of the type of explosives missing from Al Qaqaa to make the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. By simple arithmetic, the missing explosive could bring down about 700,000 similar planes. The same explosives were used in the bombing of a housing complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in November 2003 and an apartment complex in Moscow in September 1999 that killed nearly 300 people. The potential destruction from 700,000 pounds of high explosives is mind boggling.

According to a report from Reuters, “One substance found in large quantities at the Al-Qaqaa facility was the explosive HMX, said to have ‘potential use in a nuclear explosive device as a detonator.’” Therefore, prior to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the HMX had been sealed and tagged with the IAEA emblem for storage at Al Qaqaa.

[leesa]

3. So be it. This is what happens when you launch an unprovoked invasion

[Pirate Smile]

5. Sorry, but "so be it" seems rather flippant when it is our soldiers getting

blown up.

I agree that this was foreseeable which is why so many of us were against it in the first place but I sure as hell don't think it is OK. That seems like the Tom Friedman view of how liberals like bad news in Iraq and for our soldiers.

If I'm misinterpreting your comment, I'm sorry but it just struck me the wrong way.

[geek tragedy]

20. At least you don't hate the troops.

:sarcasm:

The rightwing thanks you for helping them portray progressives as troop-hating fools.

[LynnTheDem]

4. Gee, a sign of awakening!

IRAQI REBELS

[bemildred]

6. An oversight, a slip-up, not significant.

Like when they forget to call al Sadr a "radial islamic cleric" or Chavez an "anti-american leader with dictatorial tendencies". No doubt the writer will be reprimanded.

[pie]

12. I thought al Sadr was a radical Islamic FIREBRAND

God, I hate that word 'firebrand.'

[bemildred]

19. Ah, shit, I forgot.

:spank::spank:
No gruel for me tonight.

[leftchick]

7. no no no, this is wrong!

they are suffering huge setbacks and are in "their last throes".

[truthisfreedom]

8. infrared lasers? they must have to wear infrared visual equipment to see

what they're pointing at! pretty sophisticated stuff. where does all the cash come from?

[Nihil]

9. Not necessarily

> they must have to wear infrared visual equipment to see

They can simply aim at a normally visible mark (graffiti, cigarette
packet) without needing to see the beam ... but they *would* have to
have line of sight to the device as an "infrared laser" is a straight
line ...

[pie]

11. Detonation with an infrared laser? How does that work?

[reprobate]

14. Probably the simplest would be a photodetector diode with an IR filter,

used to close the arming circuit. Most any hobbyist could thro this together in a half hour. Including the time to heat up the soldering iron.

[saigon68]

21. The simplest device

sometimes is the most fool proof.

[tanyev]

10. We did lose track of $9 billion over there.

God only knows whose hands it landed in.

[truthisfreedom]

22. so we're fighting insurgents fueled with US Treasury dollars?

billions of US Treasury dollars?

[Nihil]

23. Yep. Great isn't it?

Normally we "civilised" nations only send weapons and ammunition to
both sides of a conflict. This time it's cash.

To be fair though, the "insurgents" aren't getting billions of dollars.
They only get a free crack at previously guarded arms dumps, unlimited
popular support and a "new starter" bonus of unarmoured targets for the
first two years.

Neither do the US troops (and "allies") who thought they were signing
up to defend their own country (rather than the US defence industry).
It's the Halliburton/KBR/Blackwell shit-holes who get the billions.

[RedEarth]

15. Iraqi Rebels Refine Bomb Skills, Pushing Toll of G.I.'s Higher

American casualties from bomb attacks in Iraq have reached new heights in the last two months as insurgents have begun to deploy devices that leave armored vehicles increasingly vulnerable, according to military records.

Last month there were about 700 attacks against American forces using so-called improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.'s, the highest number since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the American military command in Iraq and a senior Pentagon military official. Attacks on Iraqis also reached unprecedented levels, Lt. Gen. John Vines, a senior American ground commander in Iraq, told reporters on Tuesday.

The surge in attacks, the officials say, has coincided with the appearance of significant advancements in bomb design, including the use of "shaped" charges that concentrate the blast and give it a better chance of penetrating armored vehicles, causing higher casualties. Another change, a senior military officer said, has been the detonation of explosives by infrared lasers, an innovation aimed at bypassing electronic jammers used to block radio-wave detonators.

....

In a sign of heightened American concern, the Army convened a conference last week at Fort Irwin, in the California desert, where engineers, contractors and senior officers grappled with the problems posed by the new bombs. One attendee, Col. Bob Davis, an Army explosives expert, called the new elements in some bombs "pretty disturbing." In a brief interview, he declined to discuss the changes, but said the "sophistication is increasing and it will increase further."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/international/middleeast/22bomb.html?ei=5094&en=4de3c8b99cb57c82&hp=&ex=1119499200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. How about they simply admit defeat & leave?

Instead they will spend more money, build bigger and heaver and slower tanks for them to blow up, or they will wait till the climb out of them before the kill them.

[Toots]

18. Instead they will spend more money

And Defense Contractors cheer. The GOP Cheers, and more Americans die. MONEY

[Pirate Smile]

17. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1570058&mesg_id=1570058