The Iraq insurgency benefits from foreign nationals crossing its borders but does not require explosives, U.S. officials said.
Sunni insurgents would continue their bombing attacks
in Iraq even if the U.S.-led coalition succeeds in closing the nation's
borders.
Officials said the insurgents continue to have access to what
appeared to be an unending supply of munitions from the arsenal of the
former Saddam Hussein military. They said Sunni insurgents do not require supplies from such
countries as Iran and Syria for bombing attacks against coalition and Iraqi
security forces, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Forget the borders being open, it doesn't matter," Brig. Gen. Joseph
Votel, director of the IED Defeat Task Force, said. "It [insurgency
movement] has an endless supply in theater that he can tap into."
Votel told a counter-IED seminar at the U.S. Army's National Training
Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. in mid-June that Sunni insurgents would
continue to plan IED attacks. He said insurgents were assembling a range of
munitions in an effort to defeat U.S. Army up-armored vehicles.
"This was a very militarized society with ammo plants and depots all
over the country," Votel said.
Lt. Col. Paul Grosskruger, chief of staff for the Army Engineer School,
said up-armored vehicles would not resolve the IED campaign by Sunni
insurgents. Grosskruger, whose school is part of the Defense Department's
Joint IED Task Force, said the preferred method was to find and target IED
manufacturers.
"The solution is to find and neutralize the munitions supplies,"
Grosskruger said. "It's to go after the supplies and the bomb makers."
The Pentagon and military have deployed a range of technology and
platforms in Iraq to defeat IEDs. They include the Buffalo, a heavily
armored truck with a hydraulic arm that enables crews to examine suspected
IEDs from a safe distance. The army has also deployed the Meerkat, a
countermine vehicle; and robots equipped with cameras and mechanical hands
to examine suspected IEDs.
Soldiers have also been trained to use bomb-sniffing dogs to detect
IEDs. Officials said IEDs have often comprised an artillery shell
attached to a simple triggering device.
Over the last few months, officials said, Sunni insurgents have improved
their disguise of IEDs. They cited the placement of IEDs atop telephone
poles or buried behind concrete abutments.
"We'd prefer to get IEDs intact if possible so we can analyze them,"
Grosskruger said. "If you take apart his weapon, you can learn something
about the bomb maker who built it. We expect that this will be a process of
continuous solution development."
