U.S. Army Engineers Tackle IEDs

[Batgirl]

RAMADI, Iraq — U.S. Army combat engineers based in Ramadi (search) began their day by blowing up two unexploded mortars — one of which they pulled from the body of a fellow soldier.

From that grim mission, they began their next — patrolling the streets of Ramadi, looking for improvised explosive devices. But the first IED found them instead. Shrapnel from a roadside bomb exploded next to U.S. armored humvees but injured no one. It was detonated by a satellite phone in the hands of a nearby insurgent.



Minutes later, just a few feet away, combat engineers found a second bomb -- this one so large, if a humvee — even a fully armored one — had run over it, it would have been what the engineers call a "catastrophic kill."

Further down the road, the engineers found a weapons store -- a hole filled with mortars, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a propane tank packed with explosives and disassembled AK-47s. The soldiers dug up the store and detonated everything in it.

IEDs are the No. 1 killer of military personnel in this area of Iraq. Finding them and blowing them up is dangerous but critical work.

Fox

Those insurgents are some crafty bastards, I'm glad we are learning from their mistakes.

[Gorilla24D]

Seen em up close and personal

Lost a good friend to a VBIED.

On May 1 ,2005.

[Gorilla24D]

Highly doubt a sattelite phone was used to detonate any IED..likley a cheap base phone..
Sat phone is too nice an asset for either side to use so waste fully...