IED is an acronym for improvised explosive device, and yet it stands for so much more. Common examples of IEDs are home made bombs consisting of an explosive of some sort (usually a form of recovered military ordnance), and triggered by some sort of improvised detonator. They can be thrown, placed on roads, detonated while being worn (suicide bombers), and loaded into vehicles. Perhaps the most frightening example of an IED is one triggered by cell-phone, where the ignition circuit may be engaged by something as simple as receiving a text message.
Needless to say, aggressors who would otherwise not have access to explosives usually employ IEDs in unofficial military action. They are the chief weapons of guerilla fighters and ‘terrorists,’ and see heavy usage today the various hot spots of world conflict, namely Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. In the current Iraq war, IEDs are responsible for almost half of the American casualties.
Throughout history, IEDs have been the weapon of choice for freedom fighters, looking back to events like the Vietnam War. There is something strangely other about the use of such ‘primitive’ weapons, and through this they achieve their intended goal of being morally destructive weapons as well as physically destructive ones.
The most harassing aspect of IEDs is their inconsistency. They are hard to avoid as they could essentially be in the form of anything, and even when found, they are very difficult to remove and deactivate as they are often crudely and hastily fashioned by inexperienced hands.
More on IEDs: https://www.jieddo.dod.mil/.
–A home made bomb.
Images source: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/images/set2/IEDcellphone.jpg
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