Iraqis are increasingly using roadside remote controlled mines (or IEDs) to attack American forces. These weapons have been a favorite tactic of Islamic radicals from Chechnya to the Hindu Kush. An EOD team in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force area reported finding four 125 mm high explosive tank rounds evenly spaced and camouflaged by foliage. The devices were set for command detonation approximately 100 meters from the road using a small tractor battery. Only one of the four rounds detonated.
In the course of the last week, three roadside bomb blasts killed or injured Americans, while troops discovered and defused at least one other. The latest attack killed an American soldier and his Iraqi translator in northern Baghdad on the 21st, while three other 1st Armored Division soldiers were wounded and two Humvees destroyed. On the 19th, four more U.S. troops were wounded when their convoy was hit by a remote-controlled bomb.
A 3rd Infantry Division soldier died of injuries in the mid-afternoon attack on the 18th, when his convoy was near a traffic circle by Fallujah's main bridge over the Euphrates River. The blast left a one-and-a-half foot crater in the road. The vehicle, which took the brunt of the impact, crossed two lanes and went off the edge of the road.
Earlier in the day, Army engineers on patrol spotted what was described as a large bomb inside a white burlap sack on the median strip of a highway near Baghdad's airport. It was the same place where a military vehicle came under fire on Monday, killing a soldier and wounding four. The bomb had an estimated 100-foot blast radius.
The bomb that was defused was hidden in a three by one foot mold used to make blocks of ice. It was powered by two car batteries and designed to be detonated by a radio-controlled doorbell button. Witnesses have reported other roadside bombs detonated by men in nearby cars watching the convoys, thereby ensuring a quick getaway.
A bomb disposal team dismantled the bomb's blasting cap and X-rayed it for signs of a secondary detonation system, then removed the bomb for a controlled detonation in a remote area to avoid damaging the windows in nearby houses. - Adam Geibel
