Barrel bombs risk becoming answer to insurgency

Associated Press via Yahoo! ^ | 2014-06-07 | Lara Jakes

[justlurking]

WASHINGTON (AP) — In desperate efforts to gain ground on battlefields, frustrated governments in the Mideast and Africa are using barrel bombs against their enemies — launching the cheap, quickly manufactured weapons as a crude counter to roadside blasts and suicide explosions that insurgents have deployed with deadly success for years.

New evidence that they are being used in Iraq after being dropped on civilian populations in Syria and Sudan has raised concerns that governments in a number of unstable nations will embrace them.

Described as "flying IEDs" — or improvised explosive devices — barrel bombs have the power to wipe out a row of buildings in a single blast and can kill large numbers of people, including unintended victims.

"It's fair to say that a lot of governments are losing control of the counterinsurgency," said Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "They're also watching what they see in Syria, and they feel like their air power is what is making the difference."

"Barrel bomb" is a catchall term for a large container packed with fuel, chemicals or explosives and often scraps of metal that, in recent years, have most often been dropped on targets from helicopters or planes overhead. However, they also have been found on Israeli beaches, where authorities believe they washed up after militants on the Gaza Strip released them.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Barrels are easy to stack or lay them horizontally on the bed of a van or pick up. You can “roll out the barrel” as you drive through a neighborhood and drop them off one at a time strategically. Hmmmm? How long before we experience them here?
Sould we start a Bomb pool?

[Norm Lenhart]

And soon, garbage cans will require a waiting list/BKG check. If you filled up your F350 with Diesel or visited an ag supply this month, no can for you.

[ryderann]

Outlaw barrels. Establish barrel-free zones.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Roll out the barrels, we’ll have a barrel of fun!

[darkwing104]

Dropping IEDs on terrorists who plant IEDs...Its like the circle of life

[drunknsage]

Not gonna happen. We don’t have a surplus of military ordinance laying around. Most of these are created because they have access to rounds but no delivery system. This is just another type of IED. Unless you know of large stockpiles of artillery and rockets, you can’t even come close to making something like this unless you have access to large amounts of HE material. About the worst you could get is a shrapnel weapon but you aren’t going to be flattening buildings.

If you include Boston, we are already experiencing IED’s. They are crude, low energy, but effective against soft targets. They are nothing compared to the weapons mentioned in the article. Imagine a barrel stuffed full of an HE compound like RDX. Scary thought but not likely going to happen unless some group starts raiding a military or industrial demo sites.

Then again, there’s tannerite but that stuff isn’t common and rarely in high enough quantities to make something like this.

[BenLurkin]

I would favor shoving pallet loads of these.....

..... out the back of a C-17 as it flies over Muslim infested areas.

Just above effective of small arms range should do the trick.

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[Organic Panic]

So we are to be concerned with Assad dropping these bombs on fellow islamists?

[BobL]

Maybe if the Syrian rebels would get off their jihad kick they’d stop having barrel bombs dropped on their heads.

[Chuckster]

Sounds damned unsporting to me!

[rellimpank]

—good comment—(my tagline applies)—

[Neidermeyer]

How long before we experience them here?
**************
OKC

[Bringbackthedraft]

Imagine a barrel stuffed full of an HE compound like RDX. Scary thought but not likely going to happen unless some group starts raiding a military or industrial demo sites.................................. Maybe not, think about multiple small packages of HE via Mexico. The many unfriendly nations will be more than happy to provide the necessary supplies to disrupt us, of that I am sure. We can’t seem to stop anything coming across our border, as much as we like to. They can drop duffel bags of stuff just like they drop the dope. Diesel oil and fertilizer can be bought separate and in small quantities, and stored in various locations until needed to make one big Boom. We are vulnerable even though we think not.