And your plan is?

easy to build, and the explosives that power them
too readily available, for them to go away anytime soon, said Brig.
Abdul Kadir Moniem Said, the director of the Iraqi police unit that
defuses and investigates IEDs.

"One of the coalition's fatal mistakes was to allow the terrorists
into army storerooms," he said, citing the postwar looting of
ammunition depots across Iraq.

"The terrorists took all the explosives they would ever need."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10020484.htm

Oct. 26, 2004

Homemade bombs are largest killer of coalition soldiers in Iraq

By Patrick Kerkstra
Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq -

The innards of the Iraqi insurgency are piling up at Baghdad's
bomb-squad headquarters: a tangle of gaffer's tape and electrical
wire, 9-volt batteries and assorted kitchen timers, even a pink
plastic alarm clock adorned with daisies.

They're the building blocks of what the military calls improvised
explosive devices, the weapon of choice for Iraq's militants.

The simple bombs have become the biggest killer of coalition soldiers
and the unglamorous foundation of the insurgent effort to drive the
U.S.-led coalition out of Iraq.

As the coalition IED death toll has mounted to more than 300,
according to icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks military
casualties, soldiers have come to consider the homemade bombs an apt
symbol for the larger war in Iraq: a sneaky, primitive weapon that's
tailor-made for a murky, elusive enemy.

"It's a different kind of war. It's reactionary. You can't shoot until
something explodes, and then what do you shoot at? They're already
gone," said Sgt. Chris McGuire, of the 21st Field Artillery Regiment.

The ubiquitous IEDs led the military to add armor to thousands of
soft-skinned vehicles.

They've forced units across the country to devote untold hours to IED
patrols, searching for suspected bombs or parking along crucial routes
in an attempt to stop them from being planted.

It's dull and unrewarding work, and it diverts attention from vital
community affairs and reconstruction missions, enlisted soldiers and
officers at two Baghdad bases said.

For all the military's efforts to tame the threat, IEDs kill coalition
soldiers at a steady clip, 10 in some months, 20 or more in others.

And while the Iraqi government keeps no statistics on civilians killed
by IEDs, news accounts of the blasts almost always include bystanders.

The devices are too easy to build, and the explosives that power them
too readily available, for them to go away anytime soon, said Brig.
Abdul Kadir Moniem Said, the director of the Iraqi police unit that
defuses and investigates IEDs.

"One of the coalition's fatal mistakes was to allow the terrorists
into army storerooms," he said, citing the postwar looting of
ammunition depots across Iraq.

"The terrorists took all the explosives they would ever need."

_______________________________________________________

From The New York Times, 10/25/04:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/international/middleeast/25bomb.html?hp&ex=1098763200&en=fd35fdf4b6d46d61&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq

Harry