Insurgent bomb-makers seek edge in roadside arms race

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — On the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan and southern Lebanon no weapon poses as big a threat to Western armies' armoured convoys as the simple roadside bomb.

For more than half a decade US and European forces have been locked in an arms race with insurgent engineers, who try to build ever more sophisticated booby-traps to defeat ever stronger armour and defensive tactics.

When American-led forces invaded Iraq five years ago, their tank squadrons were followed by supply columns of un-protected trucks and jeeps. Now, almost all their movements are in armoured vehicles or helicopters.

In response, insurgents deployed a new generation of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), ranging from huge explosive charges buried deep under the road to...