Officials said Sunni insurgents in Iraq have been developing
increasingly powerful improvised explosive devices, the leading cause of
U.S. military casualties in that Arab country. They said insurgents have
produced shaped-charge explosives that could penetrate the U.S. Army M1A2
main battle tank and Bradley fighting vehicle.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel, director of the U.S. Army IED Defeat Task
Force, told the Washington-based Lexington Institute that Iraqi insurgents
have sought to compensate for the up-armoring of U.S. combat vehicles. Votel
said Sunni insurgents have quickly learned the vulnerable points of even the
most heavily-armored of U.S. combat vehicles.
Eleven U.S. soldiers were killed in IED attacks from June 9 to 11, Middle East Newsline reported. In
one attack, five Marines were killed when their vehicle struck an IED during
combat operations near Haqlaniyah in western Iraq.
The IED Defeat Task Force has examined IED strikes to determine the
technology and methods used by insurgents. The force has also sought to
discern the signature of bomb-makers for military intelligence.
In an address on June 8, Votel ruled out the use of technology to defeat
IEDs in Iraq. The general asserted that greater efforts would be required to
track and capture IED cells, particularly suicide bombers.
Votel said suicide bombers detonate two-thirds of car bombs in Iraq. He
said the army doesn't understand how suicide bombers are recruited.
Officials said the army appears to have reached a stalemate in the war
against IEDs, 40 percent of which have been neutralized by U.S. forces. They
said Iraqi insurgents increased their IED strikes and developed more
advanced bombs.
The IED Defeat Task Force has determined that IED networks comprised
numerous cells with separate command, production, transportation and
emplacement elements. The insurgents have also been conducting surveillance
on U.S. combat units to facilitate plans for IED strikes.
The U.S. military has introduced new measures and platforms to battle
IEDs. The military has deployed 31 new 5-ton armored gun trucks to protect
convoys against IED attacks in Iraq.
In May 2005, Steven DeTeresa, an engineer from the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., told the House Armed Services
Committee that the gun truck contains armor and multi-weapons capacity.
DeTeresa said the truck's two layers of steel armor augmented by ballistic
fiberglass would enable the crew to survive an IED explosion.
In April 2005, the U.S. Marine Corps launched a facility outside Baghdad
to produce Humvees equipped with advanced armor. The facility contains
contractors from such companies as Honeywell, KBR and Oshkosh.
