Warning: mkdir() [
function.mkdir]: Permission denied in
/home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line
12
Warning: mkdir() [
function.mkdir]: No such file or directory in
/home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line
12
Warning: fopen(/home/templatecore2cache//*cluesnet.com/64/6436a6761310891b6ca0c8ee4121f0964760e7cd.tc2cache) [
function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in
/home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line
130
Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in
/home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line
131
Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in
/home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line
132
An
improvised explosive device (
IED) is a
bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional
military action. They may be partially comprised of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery round, attached to a detonating mechanism.
IEDs may be used in
terrorist actions or in unconventional warfare by guerrilla warfares or commando forces in a theater (warfare). In the 2003–present Iraq War, IEDs have been used extensively against coalition forces and by the end of 2007 they have been the reason for two-thirds of all US deaths in Iraq. More U.S. Troops Die in Iraq Bombings Even as Armoring Improves,
Bloomberg More Attacks, Mounting Casualties,
Washington Post They are also used extensively by cadres of the rebel Tamil Tiger (LTTE) organization against military and civilian targets in
Sri Lanka. Suicide Terrorism: A Global Threat 13 killed in blasts, arson in Sri Lanka
IEDs are often placed on the curb of roads so as to detonate at passing vehicles or pedestrians, and so are sometimes known as
roadside bombs.
Background
An IED is a bomb fabricated in an improvised manner incorporating destructive, lethal, noxious,
pyrotechnic, or Incendiary device Chemical industry and designed to destroy or incapacitate personnel or vehicles. In some cases, IEDs are used to distract, disrupt, or delay an opposing force, facilitating another type of attack. IEDs may incorporate military or commercially-sourced explosives, and often combine both types, or they may otherwise be made with home made explosives (HME).
An IED typically consists of an explosive charge (potentially assisted by a booster charge), a
detonator, and an initiation system, which is a mechanism that initiates the electrical charge that sets off the device. An IED designed for use against armored targets such as personnel carriers or tanks will also include some form of armor penetrator, typically consisting of a copper rod or cone, propelled by the shaped explosive load. IEDs are extremely diverse in design, and may contain many types of initiators, detonators, penetrators, and explosive loads. Antipersonnel IEDs typically also contain shrapnel-generating objects such as nails or ball bearings (known as shipyard confetti after the metal waste found in the shipyards of Belfast). IEDs are triggered by various methods, including remote control, infra-red or magnetic triggers, pressure-sensitive bars or trip wires. In some cases, multiple IEDs are wired together in a daisy-chain, to attack a convoy of vehicles spread out along a roadway.
IEDs made by inexperienced designers or with substandard materials may fail to
Detonation, and in some cases actually detonate on either the maker or the emplacer of the device (these unintended early detonations are known as pre-detonations or "
own goals" if the placer is killed in the detonation). However, some groups have been known to produce sophisticated devices that are constructed with components scavenged from conventional
munitions and standard consumer electronics components, such as
mobile phones, washing machine timers, pagers, or garage door openers. The sophistication of an IED depends on the training of the designer and the tools and materials available.
The majority of IEDs use conventional Explosive material charges as their explosive load. However, the threat exists that toxic
chemical warfare, biological warfare, or radioactive (dirty bomb) material may be added to a device, thereby creating a host of other life-threatening effects beyond shrapnel, concussive blasts and fire normally associated with bombs.
A
vehicle borne IED, or
VBIED, is a military term for a
car bomb or truck bomb. These are typically employed by suicide bombers, and can carry a relatively large payload. They can also be detonated from a remote location. VBIEDs can create additional shrapnel through the destruction of the vehicle itself, as well as using vehicle fuel as an
incendiary weapon.
Detecting and disarming an IED
Since these devices are improvised, there are no specific guidelines for bomb disposal (EOD) personnel to use to positively identify or categorize them. EOD personnel are trained in the render safe procedure and disposal of IEDs. The presence of chemical warfare,
biological warfare,
radioactivity, or
radioactivity (
CBRN) material in an IED requires additional precautions. As with other missions, the EOD operator provides the area commander with an assessment of the situation and of support needed to complete the mission.
Countermeasures
Military forces and law enforcement personnel from around the world have developed a number of Render safe procedure (RSP) to deal with IEDs. RSPs may be developed as a result of direct experience with devices or by applied research designed to counter the threat. The claimed effectiveness of remote jamming systems, proven or otherwise, has caused IED technology to essentially regress to command-wire detonation methods. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/an-vlq-9.htm These are physical connections between the detonator and explosive device and cannot be jammed. However, these types of IEDs are more difficult to emplace quickly, and more readily detected.
Military forces from Canada,
United Kingdom,
Israel, Spain and the
United States are at the forefront of counter-IED efforts, as all have direct experience in dealing with IEDs used against them in conflict or terrorist attacks.
Technological countermeasures are only part of the solution in the effort to defeat IEDs; experience, training and awareness remain key factors in combating them. For example, there are visual signs that may suggest the presence of an IED, such as recently turned-over soil or sand by a road, or an abandoned vehicle beside a road. Recognizing these telltale signs may be as valuable as having sophisticated detection equipment.
History
World War II
One of the first examples of coordinated large-scale use of IEDs was the Belarusian
Rail War launched by Belarusian guerillas against the Nazis during World War II. Both command-detonated and delayed-fuse IEDs were used to derail thousands of German trains during 1943–1944.
Northern Ireland
Throughout The Troubles, the Provisional IRA made extensive use of IEDs in their
Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997 against the British army. From simple petrol bombs (Molotov Cocktail) to sophisticated Barrack buster Mortar Bombs (The "Flying Carbomb") and remote controlled IEDs, the members of the PIRA developed and counter-developed devices and tactics.
Roadside bombs were extensively used by the
Provisional IRA. Typically, a roadside bomb was placed in a drain or culvert along a rural road and exploded by remote control when
British Army or other security forces vehicles were passing. The most lethal example of these attacks came in 1979, when 18 British soldiers were killed by two culvert bombs in the
Warrenpoint ambush. As a result of the use of these bombs, the British military had to stop transport by road in areas such as South Armagh, and use helicopter transport instead. In the 1980s and 1990s, all culverts were welded and concreted shut, so that explosives could not be placed in them.
Most IEDs used commercial or homemade explosives, although the use of
Semtex H smuggled in from Libya in the 1980s was also common from the mid 1980s onwards. Bomb Disposal teams from
321 EOD manned by
Ammunition Technicians were deployed in those areas to deal with the IED threat.
In the early 1970s, at the height of the PIRA campaign, the British Army unit tasked with rendering safe IEDs, 321 EOD, sustained significant casualties while engaged in bomb disposal operations. This mortality rate was far higher than other high risk occupations such as deep sea diving, and a careful review was made of how men were selected for EOD operations. The review recommended bringing in psychometric testing of soldiers to ensure those chosen had the correct mental preparation for high risk bomb disposal duties.
The IRA came up with ever more sophisticated designs and deployments of IEDs. Booby Trap or Victim Operated IEDs (VOIEDs), were commonplace. The IRA engaged in an ongoing battle to gain the upper hand in electronic warfare with remote controlled devices. The rapid changes in development led 321 EOD to employ specialists from
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, the Royal Signals, and
Intelligence Corps. This multi-unit approach led to the development and use of most of the modern weapons, equipment and techniques now used by EOD Operators throughout the rest of the world.
The bomb disposal operations were led by
Ammunition Technicians and
Ammunition Technical Officer from
321 EOD, and were trained at the Felix Centre at the
Army School of Ammunition. To this day the
Felix Centre is the foremost authority on
IEDD in the world.
Vietnam
IEDs were used during the Vietnam War by the
Viet Cong against land- and river-borne vehicles as well as personnel.http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/vietnam/minesouthviet.htm They were commonly constructed using materials from unexploded American
Unexploded ordnance.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/series/pt_05.html 33 percent of U.S. casualties in Vietnam and 28 percent of deaths were officially attributed to mines; these figures include losses caused by both IEDs and commercially manufactured mines.http://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/gen1/General-03.htm
The
Grenade in a Can was a simple and effective booby trap. A
hand grenade with the safety pin removed and safety lever compressed was placed into a container such as a tin can, with a length of string or tripwire attached to the grenade. The can was fixed in place and the other end of the string stretched across a path or doorway opening and firmly tied down. Alternatively, the end of the string could be attached to the moving portion of a door or gate. When the grenade was pulled out of the can by a person or vehicle placing tension on the string, the spring-loaded safety lever would release and the grenade would explode. Viet Cong forces would place grenades (with the pin pulled) in empty food cans that had been discarded by American forces, as a cheap booby trap for the resourceful Viet Cong.
The
rubber band grenade was another booby trap. To make this device, a Viet Cong guerilla would wrap a strong
rubber band around the spring-loaded safety lever of a hand grenade and remove the pin. The grenade was then hidden in a hut. American and South Vietnamese soldiers would burn huts regularly to prevent them from being inhabited again, or to expose
foxholes and
tunnel entrances, which were frequently concealed within these structures. When a hut with the booby trap was torched, the rubber band on the grenade would melt, releasing the safety lever and blowing up the hut. This would often wound the soldiers with burning bamboo and metal fragments. This booby trap was also used to destroy vehicles when the modified grenade was placed in the fuel tank. The device would be triggered when the rubber band would be eaten away by the chemical action of the fuel, releasing the safety lever and detonating the grenade.
Another interesting hand grenade variant was the mason jar grenade. The safety pin of hand grenades would be pulled and the grenades would be placed in glass ball mason jars which would hold back the safety lever. The safety lever would release upon the shattering of the mason jar and the grenade would detonate. This particular variant was popular with chopper crews, which would use them as improvised anti-personnel cluster bombs during air raids. They were easy to dump out of the flight door over a target and the thick Ball Mason glass was resistant to premature shattering.
Afghanistan
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan of
Afghanistan by the USSR on 27 December 1979, the Afghan Mujahideen were supplied with large quantities of military supplies from many
Muslim states and from the United States. Among those supplies were many types of
anti-tank mines. The Afghan Mujahideen often removed the explosives from several foreign anti-tank mines, and combined the explosives in tin cooking-oil cans for a more powerful blast. Often the foreign anti-tank mines were enclosed in plastic containers, making them difficult to detect. By combining the explosives from several mines and placing them in tin-cans, the Afghan Mujahideen made them easier to detect. After an IED was exploded, the Afghan Mujahideen often used direct fire weapons such as machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to continue the attack.
Afghan Mujahideen operating far from the border with Pakistan did not have a ready supply of foreign anti-tank mines. They preferred to make mines from Soviet unexploded ordnance. The anti-tank mines were rarely triggered by pressure fuses. They were almost always remotely detonated. Since the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), the Taliban and its supporters have used IEDs against American, International Security Assistance Force, and Afghan military and civilian vehicles. While the number of such attacks has been far lower than those in Iraq, the number has been steadily increasing.
Lebanon
Hezbollah made extensive use of IEDs to attack
Israeli forces after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Israel withdrew from most of
Lebanon in 1985 but still kept troops stationed in a
buffer zone in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah frequently used IEDs to attack Israeli vehicles in this area up until the Israeli withdrawal in May 2000.
One such bomb killed Israeli Brigadier General Erez Gerstein on
February 28,
1999, the highest-ranking Israeli to die in Lebanon since
Yekutiel Adam's death in
1982.
Also in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, a
Merkava Mark II tank was hit by a
Hezbollah IED killing all 4
Israel Defense Forces servicemen on board, the first of two IEDs damaging a
Merkava tank.
Chechnya
IEDs have also been popular in Chechnya, where Russian forces are currently engaged in fighting with rebels. While no concrete statistics are available on this matter, bombs have accounted for many Russian deaths in both the
First Chechen War (
1994–1996) and the
Second Chechen War (
1999–present).
Iraq
Beginning in July 2003, the Iraqi insurgency used IEDs to target
Multinational force in Iraq vehicles. According to
iCasualties.org, 38.6 percent of American casualties in the Iraq War were caused by IEDs.http://icasualties.org/oif/stats.aspx Insurgents now use the bombs to target not only Coalition vehicles, but Iraqi police and civilian transportation as well.
Common locations for placing these bombs on the ground include
animal carcasses, soft drink cans, and boxes. Typically they explode underneath or to the side of the vehicle to cause the maximum amount of damage. However, as
vehicle armor was improved on military vehicles, insurgents began placing IEDs in elevated positions such as on
traffic sign, utility poles, or
trees, in order to hit less protected areas.
IEDs in Iraq may be made with artillery or
mortar (weapon) projectiles or with varying amounts of bulk or homemade explosives.
Despite the increased
armor, IEDs have been killing soldiers with greater frequency. May 2007 was the deadliest month for IED attacks thus far with a reported 89 of the 129 Coalition casualties coming from an IED attack.http://icasualties.org/oif/IED.aspx According to the Pentagon, 250,000 tons (of 650,000 tons total) of Iraqi ordnance were looted, providing a large supply of ammunition for the insurgents.http://hammernews.com/lootedhopes.htm
In October 2005, The UK government charged that
Iran was supplying insurgents with the technological know-how to make
shaped charges, which focus the blast in a specific direction, and can pierce greater thicknesses of armor with less explosive.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4312516.stm Iran has denied this.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4315924.stmhttp://nyjtimes.com/cover/11-11-05/IranWarnedNotToMeddle.htm
Types
Car Bomb/Vehicle-borne IEDs
Vehicles may be laden with explosives, set to explode by remote control or by a passenger/driver, commonly known as a car_bombs or VBIED pronounced
vee-bid. On occasion the driver of the car bomb may have been coerced into delivery of the vehicle under duress, a situation known as a
Proxy_bomb. Distinguishing features are low-riding vehicles with excessive weight, vehicles with only one passenger, and ones where the interior of the vehicles look like they have been stripped down and built back up. Car bombs can carry thousands of pounds of explosives and may be augmented with
Shrapnel to increase fragmentation.
Suicide bombers
Suicide bombing usually refers to an individual wearing explosives and detonates them in order to kill others including themselves. The bomber will conceal explosive on and around their person, commonly using a vest and will use a timer or some other trigger to detonate the explosives. Suicide bombers in Iraq are common in marketplaces and where Iraqi army and police recruits frequent.
Platter charges
A form of IEDs being used in Iraq are platter charges, which are rectangular or circular pieces of flat metal (usually steel) weighing a few kilograms with plastic explosives pressed onto one side of the platter.http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/20-32/chap13b.html The amount of explosive used is usually equal, by weight, to the weight of the platter. The explosives propel the platter into the target with an approximate velocity of .http://govtsecurity.com/mag/stuck_security/ The effective range can be as far as 50 meters, limited by the accuracy.
EFPs
in Iraq. The
concave copper shape on top is an explosively formed penetrator.IEDs have been deployed in the form of
Explosively Formed Penetrators, a special type of shaped charge that is effective at long standoffs from the target (50 meters or more). These are especially problematic to counter because they can be placed so far from their intended targets.http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/archive/index.php/t-10384.html An EFP is essentially a cylindrical shaped charge with a concave metal disc (often copper) in front, pointed outwards. The force of the shaped charge turns the disc into a bolt of metal, capable of penetrating the armor of most vehicles in Iraq.
Trigger mechanisms
The British also accused Iran and Hezbollah of teaching Iraqi fighters to use
infrared light beams to trigger IEDs. As the occupation forces become more sophisticated in interrupting radio signals around their convoys, the insurgents adapt their triggering methods.http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2007/June/BombMakingSkills.htm In some cases, when a more advanced method is disrupted, the insurgents will regress to using uninterruptable means, such as hard lines from the IED to detonator. However, this method is much harder to effectively conceal. It later emerged however, that these advanced IED's were old Provisional IRA technology. The infra-red beam method was perfected by the IRA in the early 90's after it acquired the technology from a botched undercover British Army operation. Many of the IED's being used against coalition forces in Iraq were originally developed by the British Army who unintentionally passed the information on to the IRA.http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/ulster/article320004.ece
See also
External links
- CFR-TV Episode 7 -- Video of a blue VBIED detonated from a distance.
- iFilm video of vehicle struck by IED
- Transcript of PBS Frontline episode Private Warriors -- this transcript corresponds to the above iFilm video: "On occasion, Erinys has recorded insurgent attacks using a camera mounted on the dashboard. Watch the next parked car on the right. The security detail immediately opens fire. The driver has been knocked unconscious. Then the dashboard camera is turned off. About 20 minutes later, the guards, unharmed, have secured the area. They report that one Iraqi was killed."
- Stratign Jammers
- Alluviam IED Decision Support
- Defense Update The use of IED in Asymmetric Warfare
- Defense Update Protection against IED
- Defense Update Protected vehicles
- Defense Update Israeli IED Neutralizer
References
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) / Booby Traps
An IED can be almost anything with any type of material and initiator. It is a “homemade” device that is designed to cause death or injury by using explosives alone or in ...
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) - Iraq
Iraq is one of the most heavily mined nations in the world. As of early 2003, it was estimated that there were over 10 million mines already in the ground—8 million antipersonnel ...
Improvised explosive device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. They may be partially comprised of conventional military ...
Category:Improvised explosive devices - Wikipedia, the free ...
Subcategories. This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total. C [+]
Improvised Explosive Devices
b Terrorism: ... Improvised Explosive Devices. An improvised explosive device (IED) is the conventional name for explosive devices more often used in unconventional warfare by ...
identification
identification (DOD) 1. The process of determining the friendly or hostile character of an unknown detected contact. 2. In arms control, the process of determining which ...
Improvised Explosive Devices
statement of john e. lewis deputy assistant director counterterrorism division federal bureau of investigation before the senate judiciary committee
IED LIES
IED LIES A JNV Note By Milan Rai The US claims that Iran supplies Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDS) to Iraqi insurgents. No serious evidence has been provided. 12 February 2007 ...
Potential Indicators of Threats Involving Vehicle Borne Improvised ...
IWS is an online resource that aims to stimulate debate about a range of subjects from information security to information operations and e-commerce.
Improvised Explosive Devices - IED Protection Using BlastWrap®
Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, can be mitigated through the use of BlastGard International's patent pending BlastWrap. Blastwrap is an IED protection product designed to ...