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Coalition Forces detain terrorist leaders responsible for IED/EFP attacks in Diyala Tuesday, 02 October 2007 Multi-National Corps – Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory APO AE 09342 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RELEASE No. 20071002-10 October 2, 2007 Coalition Forces detain terrorist leaders responsible for IED/EFP attacks in Diyala Multi-National Division – North PAO BOOB AL SHAM, Iraq – Coalition Forces detained two terrorist leaders responsible for emplacing improvised explosive devices and explosively formed penetrators on roads in Diyala province during a raid in Boob al Sham, Iraq, Sept. 29. Soldiers from Alpha Battery, 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Stryker...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RELEASE No. 20070908-01 September 8, 2007 Hunter UAV kills two enemy fighters during historic flight Multi-National Division – North PAO TIKRIT, Iraq – A Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle engaged and killed two suspected improvised explosive device emplacers overwatching a major thoroughfare for Coalition Forces during a historic flight near Qayyarah, Iraq, in Nineveh province Sept. 1. A scout weapons team from 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, observed the two unknown enemy fighters in a tactical overwatch near the roadside. The SWT requested support from the Hunter UAV. The pilots guided the Hunter operator...

BAGHDAD - U.S.-led forces swooped into the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City on Wednesday, killing 32 suspected militants and detaining 12 others in fighting and an airstrike targeting alleged smuggling networks from Iran. Iraqi police and witnesses said nine civilians were killed in the attack, which occurred hours before Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Tehran for his second visit in less than a year. Iraq, which like Iran is majority Shiite, has managed a difficult balancing act between Tehran and Washington since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, trying to maintain good relations with its powerful neighbor while not...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces captured what are believed to be terrorists with ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) from Iran in a raid Tuesday in Shulah.Coalition Forces received sustained small arms and rocket propelled grenade (RPG) fire from terrorists during a precision raid to capture or kill operatives with connections to the IRGC-QF.  Coalition Forces returned fire on the identified enemy positions killing four terrorists.The captured suspected terrorists are believed to be key players in a major facilitation network for smuggling weapons and components of Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs) from Iran into Iraq to be used...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ — U.S. soldiers working the streets of the capital fear one Iraqi weapon more than others — copper-plated explosives that can penetrate armor and have proved devastating to Humvees and are even capable of severely damaging tanks. The power of EFPs, explosively formed penetrators or projectiles, to spray molten metal balls that punch through the armor on vehicles has some American soldiers rethinking their tactics. Some are asking whether the U.S. should give up its reliance on constant improvements to vehicle defenses.

In terms of news stories, why do we continue to share what perhaps should not be shared with the entire world (which also means the enemy)? Case in point, yesterday's piece on MRAPs, Controversy over military vehicles for Iraq heats up, by Renee Schoof with McClatchy Newspapers. (MRAP, as I recently explained in a piece for The Washington Times, is “a U.S. Defense Department acronym for the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle design that soldiers want and contractors are bidding on to build in great numbers.” It is not, as Senator Joe Biden described it, a Humvee “with a V-shaped thing.” But...

May 29, 2007: Everyone knows explosively forged projectiles (EFPs) are an effective weapon against vehicles in Iraq. However, troops in the field have noticed that although EFPs go through metal armor, often glass laminate armor (aka glass ballistic laminate armor) will stop them. Troops report that the EFPs would not go through the bullet proof windows, which are made of glass laminate. However, the glass laminate only works once. When an EFP strikes the glass, the glass "spiderwebs" (shatters laterally and vertically) but it stops the penetrator. Of course it only needs to work once—troops lives are saved and the...

KABUL, Afghanistan - A powerful and sophisticated type of roadside bomb prevalent in Iraq but not seen before in Afghanistan was discovered near a university in Kabul last week, prompting a rare countrywide warning to NATO and Afghan troops. The bomb, known as an EFP, or explosively formed projectile, was notable for its level of sophistication and similarity to those seen in Iraq, said Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. NATO officials say they don't know where the bomb came from. "The kind that we're talking about is machined. It has to be fabricated to...

US forces on Friday detained four members of a gang suspected of smuggling armour-piercing bombs from Iran to Iraq and sending back militants for "terrorist training", the military said. A statement from US command in Iraq said the suspects were picked up in an early morning raid on the east Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, a known stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. "The individuals targeted during the raid are suspected members of a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq," it...

Three factories in Iran are mass-producing the sophisticated roadside bombs used to kill British soldiers over the border in Iraq, it has been claimed.The lethal bombs are being made by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps at ordnance factory sites in Teheran, according to opponents of the country's theocratic regime. Designed to penetrate heavy armour, the devices being manufactured in Iran involve the use of "explosively formed projectiles" or EFPs, also known as shaped charges, often triggered by infra-red beams.The weapons can pierce the armour of British and American tanks and armoured personnel carriers and completely destroy armoured Land Rovers, which...