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thedrifter
02-05-07, 08:54 AM
‘Speed bumps’ deadly on Iraqi roads

By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today
Posted : Monday Feb 5, 2007 8:19:02 EST

A type of homemade bomb that can include parts commonly found in Iraqi kitchens and that is easy to hide on desert roads has proliferated in Anbar province and spread to other parts of the country.

Troops in armored vehicles are endangered by the bomb, which U.S. military officials call a “speed bump.” The weapon is formed by sandwiching plastic explosives between metal plates, such as baking trays, a Pentagon intelligence document shows. A detonator switch triggers the bomb when a vehicle rolls over it, ripping into the often-unarmored underside.

Homemade bombs, ot improvised explosive devices, cause 70 percent of U.S. deaths and wounds in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said. Explosive devices had killed 1,337 U.S. troops and wounded 11,871 in Iraq through Jan. 27, the Pentagon said.

The speed bump first appeared in Anbar province, Pentagon records show. Anbar is a hotbed of the Sunni insurgency and is the scene of some of the heaviest fighting.

The first devices were built with baking trays; now they’re fashioned from various types of metal.

“The enemy’s IED arsenal evolves as we succeed in defeating his methods of attack,” said Brig. Gen. Dan Allyn of the Pentagon’s anti-IED office.

Part of the speed bump’s effectiveness springs from its ease of disguise. It’s tough to detect on desert roads where it can be covered with dirt, according to the Pentagon document.

The military spent $3.5 billion last year to defeat IEDs. Some of that money was spent on armored vehicles with V-shaped hulls. Those hulls can deflect the force of a blast from a speed bump or other IED outward, sparing the troops inside the vehicle the worst of the impact.

The Marine Corps, which provides most of the U.S. troops in Anbar, does not release details on causes of servicemembers’ deaths. Recent Marine contracts, however, indicate that the service is reacting to the scope of the speed bump IED problem:

* In January, the Marines placed an urgent, $9.4 million order to buy vehicles with V-shaped hulls for anti-IED work, according to Force Protection Inc. The South Carolina company produced Buffalo and Cougar combat vehicles with V-shaped hulls.

* In October, the Marines ordered $14 million worth of mine rollers — wheeled devices that travel in front of vehicles to detonate pressure-triggered IEDs.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Pentagon had been slow to recognize the value of V-shaped-hull vehicles but is now buying them as quickly as they can be made.

“They’ve literally saved hundreds of lives,” said Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Ellie