thedrifter
02-27-07, 11:15 AM
Insurgents thinking bigger in attacks
Report: IEDs down 20 percent since security crackdown
By Rick Jervis - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Feb 27, 2007 8:40:57 EST
BAGHDAD — Troops from Maj. Jeremy Siegrist’s battalion were following up a tip recently when they came across something odd: two restaurant-sized freezers sitting in the middle of a palm grove.
The freezers’ contents were even more surprising. Inside, the troops found 150 copper plates, C-4 plastic explosive and plastic tube sections — key ingredients in making the deadly, armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed projectiles.
The amount of material suggested Iraqi militants have learned how to mass-produce EFPs, rather than only import them pre-made from Iran, Siegrist said Monday.
“It’s a huge step” for the militants, he said.
The increased use of EFPs, which can shoot molten metal through tanks and cause heavier casualties than normal bombs, may be part of a broader tactical shift by Iraqi insurgents, U.S. military officials and analysts said. Since an increase in U.S. troops patrolling Baghdad under President Bush’s new security plan, extremists have launched fewer but deadlier attacks to kill Americans and terrify the Iraqi population.
The number of roadside bombs has dropped by 20 percent since the security plan began this month, the U.S. military said in a report Monday. Sectarian murders have dropped to their lowest levels in a year, the report said.
However, the scale of recent attacks threatens to overshadow any relative progress. Since the security plan started, insurgents have grabbed headlines with suicide bombs in crowded markets, the downing of U.S. helicopters and an assassination attempt Monday against Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
Three recent explosions of trucks laden with chlorine tanks were especially illustrative of insurgents’ tactics, said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. Most of the chlorine burned off in the explosions, but the mere use of the gas — used as a weapon in World War I — had a psychological impact, Garver said.
“It’s more of a terror weapon,” he said. “It’s used to get the attention of the people. And it gets our attention, too.”
As a result, some Iraqis’ patience may be waning. According to a statement attributed to Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday, the influential Shiite cleric called on Iraqis to take security into their own hands rather than trust Americans.
The number of U.S. troops in Baghdad is set to increase by 17,500 in coming months, so insurgents realize they must act now to destabilize the U.S.-backed government, said Andrew Krepinevich, a counterinsurgency expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
“Just as the administration is pushing poker chips to the middle of the table, insurgents are doing the same,” Krepinevich said.
The Pentagon’s emphasis on Baghdad may also open opportunities for insurgents to stage dramatic attacks outside the capital. On Feb. 19, a suicide car bomber rammed into two fuel trucks outside a U.S. outpost north of Baghdad, causing a fiery explosion. Insurgents then lobbed mortars and launched rockets from nearby trucks, killing two U.S. troops and injuring 29.
“We hadn’t seen that sort of complex attack on a coalition outpost before,” said Siegrist, the executive officer of the Army’s 1st Battalion, 12th Calvary Regiment, based in nearby Baqubah. “As we crank down on Baghdad, the insurgents will be pushing into the outskirts.”
U.S. forces are trying to stay one step ahead of the insurgents. To thwart car bomb attacks, troops funnel traffic away from large targets such as markets and mosques, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, told reporters recently.
“Though there may be good days during that time, we are also going to have tough ones,” he said. “The terrorists will adjust and react to our tactics.
Ellie
Report: IEDs down 20 percent since security crackdown
By Rick Jervis - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Feb 27, 2007 8:40:57 EST
BAGHDAD — Troops from Maj. Jeremy Siegrist’s battalion were following up a tip recently when they came across something odd: two restaurant-sized freezers sitting in the middle of a palm grove.
The freezers’ contents were even more surprising. Inside, the troops found 150 copper plates, C-4 plastic explosive and plastic tube sections — key ingredients in making the deadly, armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed projectiles.
The amount of material suggested Iraqi militants have learned how to mass-produce EFPs, rather than only import them pre-made from Iran, Siegrist said Monday.
“It’s a huge step” for the militants, he said.
The increased use of EFPs, which can shoot molten metal through tanks and cause heavier casualties than normal bombs, may be part of a broader tactical shift by Iraqi insurgents, U.S. military officials and analysts said. Since an increase in U.S. troops patrolling Baghdad under President Bush’s new security plan, extremists have launched fewer but deadlier attacks to kill Americans and terrify the Iraqi population.
The number of roadside bombs has dropped by 20 percent since the security plan began this month, the U.S. military said in a report Monday. Sectarian murders have dropped to their lowest levels in a year, the report said.
However, the scale of recent attacks threatens to overshadow any relative progress. Since the security plan started, insurgents have grabbed headlines with suicide bombs in crowded markets, the downing of U.S. helicopters and an assassination attempt Monday against Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
Three recent explosions of trucks laden with chlorine tanks were especially illustrative of insurgents’ tactics, said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. Most of the chlorine burned off in the explosions, but the mere use of the gas — used as a weapon in World War I — had a psychological impact, Garver said.
“It’s more of a terror weapon,” he said. “It’s used to get the attention of the people. And it gets our attention, too.”
As a result, some Iraqis’ patience may be waning. According to a statement attributed to Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday, the influential Shiite cleric called on Iraqis to take security into their own hands rather than trust Americans.
The number of U.S. troops in Baghdad is set to increase by 17,500 in coming months, so insurgents realize they must act now to destabilize the U.S.-backed government, said Andrew Krepinevich, a counterinsurgency expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
“Just as the administration is pushing poker chips to the middle of the table, insurgents are doing the same,” Krepinevich said.
The Pentagon’s emphasis on Baghdad may also open opportunities for insurgents to stage dramatic attacks outside the capital. On Feb. 19, a suicide car bomber rammed into two fuel trucks outside a U.S. outpost north of Baghdad, causing a fiery explosion. Insurgents then lobbed mortars and launched rockets from nearby trucks, killing two U.S. troops and injuring 29.
“We hadn’t seen that sort of complex attack on a coalition outpost before,” said Siegrist, the executive officer of the Army’s 1st Battalion, 12th Calvary Regiment, based in nearby Baqubah. “As we crank down on Baghdad, the insurgents will be pushing into the outskirts.”
U.S. forces are trying to stay one step ahead of the insurgents. To thwart car bomb attacks, troops funnel traffic away from large targets such as markets and mosques, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, told reporters recently.
“Though there may be good days during that time, we are also going to have tough ones,” he said. “The terrorists will adjust and react to our tactics.
Ellie