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| Shell used as IED |
Improvised explosive device or IED is a non conventional type of bomb used by terriost.
The very name “improvised” was originally meant as to make or create something by using whatever is available.
An IED was used when you couldn’t get something better, not something to be widely emulated.
IEDs may use artillery shells or conventional high-explosive charges as their explosive load as well as homemade explosives like in case of Pulwama where it was believed that the explosive was extracted from agricultural fertilizers like Ammonium Nitrate. Although the investigation is underway and nothing can be said clearly about the type of explosive.
IEDs typically contain fragmentation-generating objects such as nails, ball bearings or even small rocks to cause wounds at greater distances than blast pressure alone could.
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| Indian Armed Forces Personnel at the spot of blast |
The fatal damage can be done by a better grade of explosive like RDX, they said.
a switch (activator),
an initiator (fuse),
container (body),
charge (explosive), and
a power source (battery).
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| representative image (source: unsplash) |
For better understanding, if you put many firecrackers packed in single box and burn them together they will demonstrate same behaviour as actual IED at small scale.
IEDs are extremely diverse in design and may contain many types of initiators, detonators, penetrators, and explosive loads.
Pulwama attack was a vehicle-borne IED, or VBIED attack, a military term for a car bomb or truck bomb but can be any type of transportation such as a bicycle, motorcycle, donkey.
They are typically employed by terriost in particular ISIS, and can carry a relatively large payload like in india where it was suspected that 300kg of explosive was stuffed in SUV.
They can also be detonated from a remote location. VBIEDs can create additional shrapnel through the destruction of the vehicle itself and use vehicle fuel as an incendiary weapon. The act of a person's being in this vehicle and detonating it is known as an SVBIED suicide.
Black History of IED Bomb
In Iraq and Afghanistan, where the IEDs helped neutralize the U.S.’s overwhelming advantage.
They proved particularly effective against softer military targets such as Humvees, trucks and foot patrols, as well as civilians, and became the signature weapon in those wars.
The bomb is responsible of half of U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan.
The use of such weapons in India was fairly limited to some Naxal affected areas only.
But the recent Pulwama attack forced india to rethink on its counter terrisom strategy. However using Anti IEDs Vehicle which used by Israel and USA and by following standard operation procedure(SOP) in which a party clear the road before passing the convoy, such attack can be avoided in future.