Taliban fighters have developed a deadly new generation of their most lethal weapon, the improvised explosive device, or IED, which is almost undetectable because it has no metal or electronic parts, military experts said last week. IEDs have proved the Taliban's most deadly weapon: three out of five coalition troops killed last year in Afghanistan were victims of the bombs. At least 48 of the 108 British fatalities were caused by IEDs.
Chris Hunter, a former bomb disposal expert who served in Iraq and now runs his own consultancy said the new weapons were being manufactured from wood in Pakistan. "The expertise for this new generation of bombs is likely to be coming from foreign fighters from places such as Chechnya," he said. "But they are being mass produced in Pakistan and are being wheeled out on an industrial level. You see them everywhere."
Earlier in the war, IEDs would be mostly triggered by two hack-saw blades separated using a spacer. When the blades were stepped on or driven over they would complete an electronic circuit which so detonated the explosive – often an artillery shell. Mr Hunter added that the metal saw blades have now also been replaced with graphite blades and the artillery shells with ammonium nitrate. The damage is caused by the power of the blast rather than metal fragments, or shrapnel.
Excerpted
http://www.military-world.net/Afghanistan/3014.html
Bombs made from wood.
Does this mean that our struggling wood products business may have a future after all? I guess we can give up on our cutting boards, window moldings, cabinet frames, wine crates, furniture parts, rifle stocks, etc.
We can just make bombs. Problem solved. Our company is saved.
Thanks for the ping Oorang.
Largest Muslim community in US only musters 50 to protest Islamic terrorism
The Associated Press reported Saturday that only 50 Muslims showed up at a "Muslims Against Terrorism" protest at the federal court in Detroit on Friday while Flight 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was being arraigned inside. The local Detroit press were more generous with their estimates, That the largest Muslim community in the United States (aka Dearbornistan) could only muster such a tiny number to protest Islamic terrorism is an indication of how great a problem our country faces concerning the sentiments of the Muslim-American community.
From the AP report: Outside the courthouse, authorities set up metal barricades and limited foot traffic. One demonstrator held a sign that read: ''No U.S. Rights For Terrorists.'' About 50 men and women identifying themselves as Detroit-area Muslims chanted ''We are Americans'' as they marched behind the barricades to denounce terrorism. About a dozen of them carried U.S. flags or signs with messages such as ''Not in the name of Islam.''
Police discover children as young as seven being groomed for terrorism (in Britain)
Are wood products banned from carry on?