The Beast and the Buffalo; the US army's Iraq mine killers

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2004

TIKRIT, Iraq (AFP) — When he climbs into his huge "husky", a South African made armoured tractor used to detect mines, Josh Streeter thinks of a 24-year-old friend who was killed in December by a bomb planted on the main road linking Baghdad to the northern city of Mosul.

"If we had got these machines earlier, maybe he wouldn't have died," said the 19-year-old from the 14th Engineer Battalion.

Josh drives "the Beast" up and down this road alongside "the Buffalo", a six wheeled, 23-tonne monstrosity, also made in South Africa, that pretty much eats mines for breakfast.

His unit, which was set loose with these machines a month ago, ploughs a non-stop path up and down this 400-kilometre (250-mile) stretch of road, which serves as a main artery for US troops....