Taliban develop new bomb ‘Omar’

[TomClash]

Source: The Dawn

The biggest killer of Western troops in Afghanistan are home-made bombs, known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs, which the Taliban deploy to wide effect in their eight-year insurgency and detonate by remote control.

Western military intelligence officials have said most foreign troop deaths, which hit a record 520 last year, are caused by IEDs.

But the Taliban claimed – ahead of a major assault by foreign troops on the southern Taliban stronghold of Helmand province – to have created a new IED using materials that make them undetectable.

The network’s spokesman, who identified himself as Yousuf Ahmadi, said the new bomb had been named after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahed, believed to be based in Pakistan.

“Omar is our latest weapon in the war against the invaders,” he told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“It’s a very effective bomb, it can’t be detected by mine-sweeping vehicles and it causes more deaths,” he said.

He refused to provide more details, saying “it’s our military secret” but added that each Omar cost around 100 dollars to make.

“With a 100-dollar mine we are able to destroy the enemy’s multi-million-dollar anti-mine vehicles,” he claimed, referring to heavily armoured vehicles used in Afghanistan by US and other NATO troops.

Read more: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/07-taliban-develop-new-bomb-called-omar-ha-06

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Draw your own conclusions.

[geckosfeet]

1. I have a super ray beam gun that creates gold from bull$hit. Maybe the fed will buy it.

[pasto76]

2. they believe alot of myths

in iraq for example:

1. US troops had A/C in our uniforms enabling us to wear all that crap and still stand in the sun all day
2. The troops that did not have desert camo were the "crack" units from Europe specially trained to fight the Soviets. Avoid them.
3. Our uniforms were bulletproof. Which is funny cause were we there for 8 months before we got body armour.

couple other good ones that escape me at this early hour. Seems they are trying to capitalize on the combat myths to bolster their support with the locals....and try to scare us a little. Faintly reminiscent of Bush, wouldnt you say.

[greiner3]

3. I would imagine many weapons would be cheap;

And undetectable if they were made if plastic instead of ferrous metals. No expert, but I think that bomb detectors work by electromagnatism, at least partially. Take away the ferrous metals and these detectors might not work. I'd thought for a while that guns could be made in this fashion. Titanium and plastic constructed. The nudie machine could see them but that scans for mass not metal.

[Tesha]

4. It's almost trivially-easy to design an undetectable bomb.

How does one detect a bomb?

o Visually -- So we need camouflage or burial.

o Sound -- So make sure your timer doesn't tick, at least
not too loudly.

o Electronically -- But all of the electronic detection systems only
detect either semiconductors, large masses of metal, or closed electrical
circuits (which are, essentially, the same thing as a large mass of metal),
so don't use those items.

o Magnetically -- So don't use any ferrous metals or permanent magnets.

o Chemically -- So arrange your bomb not to emit vapors.

o Nuclear methods -- These are tough to deploy because unless your
bomb is inherently radioactive, then the nuclear detection system must
itself emit a beam of something such as neutrons. People don't take
too kindly to you continuously emitting a strong neutron beam.

o X-Ray -- Similar to nuclear detection, this must be active and has
the same negative politics associated with it. That's the hassle with
the X-ray-based nudie scanners.

o Sonar/Ultrasound -- Doesn't work all that well through the air.

o RADAR -- This may have the best possibilities, hence the terawave-
based versions of the nudie scanners.

But within those constraints, I can think of several IED designs that would
probably work pretty well, and I'll bet the bad guys can think of them too!
Remember, it may be sufficient to trigger your bomb if probed by the
various means I've cited above.

Tesha

[aquart]

5. "Invaders." WTF are we doing in that idiotic place?

ALEXANDER THE GREAT COULDN'T WIN THERE. But he had the brains to leave. That's why he's called "The Great" and not "The Moron Who Bankrupted His Country Fighting a Hopeless, Unwinnable War."

[Flaneur]

6. I hear the Omar is packed with wood instead of metal.

Talk about your splinters!

[hayu_lol]

7. The name Omar means ...

tentmaker. Is that a clue to what these new bombs are?