Inside job: Iraq insurgents booby-trap houses

[unhappycamper]

Inside job: Iraq insurgents booby-trap houses
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jan 19, 2008 6:46:54 EST

Insurgents are increasing the use of booby-trapped houses to attack U.S. troops, who are quickly adjusting their tactics to avoid getting caught in a deadly snare.

Six soldiers were killed and four injured Jan. 9 in Diyala province when the house they were searching exploded and came down upon them.

Al-Qaida “will come into a town and kick people out of their houses, use it as a headquarters and while they’re using it they’ll plant these devices,” Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of 1st Armored Division and Task Force Iron, told Army Times in a phone interview Jan. 11 from Tikrit.

Hertling is commander of Multi-National Division-North, which is headquartered in Tikrit, about 80 miles north of Baghdad.

In the case of the house in Diyala, he said, “these soldiers were led into the house by someone who didn’t go in with them. He was captured.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/army_up_offensive_080121w/