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06-04-2010, 12:44 PM
Taliban fighters turn to deadlier IEDs
Militants adapting to Marines’ strategies, using various forms of bombs
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jun 3, 2010 18:12:09 EDT
MARJAH, Afghanistan — A Marine convoy comprising several Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles, or M-ATVs, was traveling on one of Marjah’s many dirt roads May 15 when the lead vehicle set off a new type of IED, sending a plume of dust, smoke and twisted metal 50 feet in the air.
The attack highlighted a growing problem facing U.S. forces in Afghanistan: the Taliban is adapting and outsmarting the equipment designed to counter roadside bombs.
The Taliban is defeating even the Marine Corps’ newest tactical vehicle, which uses mine rollers, heavy trailer-like devices mounted on the front of armored transports to trigger roadside bombs before the vehicles roll over them. Enemy fighters are now setting homemade explosives farther away from the pressure plates that activate them, to ensure the detonation occurs under the vehicle when the mine roller hits the plate.
See More Video From Military Times
Marines in the May 15 convoy, launched by members of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, from Patrol Base Camel, experienced this firsthand. The mine roller was almost untouched by the explosion, which occurred on a road the Marines called “Hippo,” but the M-ATV attached to teetered at a 45-degree angle and sat in a 4-foot hole. The front right tire was missing and engine fluids were pooling beneath it.
“Keep eyes all the way around!” yelled Lance Cpl. Chris Ducharme, the driver of another vehicle farther back in the convoy. “Watch out for RPGs because that’s what they like to do when this happens!”
No ambush occurred, and no Marines were killed, but the turret gunner, Lance Cpl. Dominque Draper, suffered a minor concussion and deep bruise to his arm after getting tossed around in the turret.
“The entire west side of the vehicle is gone,” an unharmed Staff Sgt. Dominic Freda informed his Marines by radio, while sitting in the passenger seat of the destroyed vehicle. “This thing isn’t going anywhere.”
The new IED tactics don’t end with vehicles. Taliban forces also have started to plant directional fragmentation-charge IEDs, or makeshift anti-personnel mines, Marines here say. Typically built in a coffee can or another small, metal device, they are packed with nuts, bolts or spark plugs and attached to 10 to 20 pounds of homemade explosives. Most are detonated remotely by an insurgent, but a few have been set with tripwires, said Staff Sgt. Ryan Clay, a platoon sergeant with 3/6’s India Company.
Gunnery Sgt. Benjamin Lepping, an explosive ordnance disposal technician attached to 3/6 in Marjah, said the anti-personnel IEDs are more common now than the larger ones targeting vehicles. They’re cheaper to make, and since so many Marines patrol on foot, they are more likely to cause injuries. They have been mounted in trees, walls and buildings, but are most commonly buried on trails traveled by Marines.
Marines with 3/6 even saw an IED set floating in a canal during the initial push into Marjah, although it was ineffective.
“Ever since they did the push into Marjah, [the Taliban] has done a lot of them,” Lepping said of the anti-personnel IEDs. “When they notice a lot of vehicles, they go to large IEDs. When they notice a lot of troops on the ground, they go to DFCs. They’re looking for kills.”
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/06/marine_afghanistan_ieds_060310w/
Militants adapting to Marines’ strategies, using various forms of bombs
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jun 3, 2010 18:12:09 EDT
MARJAH, Afghanistan — A Marine convoy comprising several Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles, or M-ATVs, was traveling on one of Marjah’s many dirt roads May 15 when the lead vehicle set off a new type of IED, sending a plume of dust, smoke and twisted metal 50 feet in the air.
The attack highlighted a growing problem facing U.S. forces in Afghanistan: the Taliban is adapting and outsmarting the equipment designed to counter roadside bombs.
The Taliban is defeating even the Marine Corps’ newest tactical vehicle, which uses mine rollers, heavy trailer-like devices mounted on the front of armored transports to trigger roadside bombs before the vehicles roll over them. Enemy fighters are now setting homemade explosives farther away from the pressure plates that activate them, to ensure the detonation occurs under the vehicle when the mine roller hits the plate.
See More Video From Military Times
Marines in the May 15 convoy, launched by members of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, from Patrol Base Camel, experienced this firsthand. The mine roller was almost untouched by the explosion, which occurred on a road the Marines called “Hippo,” but the M-ATV attached to teetered at a 45-degree angle and sat in a 4-foot hole. The front right tire was missing and engine fluids were pooling beneath it.
“Keep eyes all the way around!” yelled Lance Cpl. Chris Ducharme, the driver of another vehicle farther back in the convoy. “Watch out for RPGs because that’s what they like to do when this happens!”
No ambush occurred, and no Marines were killed, but the turret gunner, Lance Cpl. Dominque Draper, suffered a minor concussion and deep bruise to his arm after getting tossed around in the turret.
“The entire west side of the vehicle is gone,” an unharmed Staff Sgt. Dominic Freda informed his Marines by radio, while sitting in the passenger seat of the destroyed vehicle. “This thing isn’t going anywhere.”
The new IED tactics don’t end with vehicles. Taliban forces also have started to plant directional fragmentation-charge IEDs, or makeshift anti-personnel mines, Marines here say. Typically built in a coffee can or another small, metal device, they are packed with nuts, bolts or spark plugs and attached to 10 to 20 pounds of homemade explosives. Most are detonated remotely by an insurgent, but a few have been set with tripwires, said Staff Sgt. Ryan Clay, a platoon sergeant with 3/6’s India Company.
Gunnery Sgt. Benjamin Lepping, an explosive ordnance disposal technician attached to 3/6 in Marjah, said the anti-personnel IEDs are more common now than the larger ones targeting vehicles. They’re cheaper to make, and since so many Marines patrol on foot, they are more likely to cause injuries. They have been mounted in trees, walls and buildings, but are most commonly buried on trails traveled by Marines.
Marines with 3/6 even saw an IED set floating in a canal during the initial push into Marjah, although it was ineffective.
“Ever since they did the push into Marjah, [the Taliban] has done a lot of them,” Lepping said of the anti-personnel IEDs. “When they notice a lot of vehicles, they go to large IEDs. When they notice a lot of troops on the ground, they go to DFCs. They’re looking for kills.”
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/06/marine_afghanistan_ieds_060310w/