Improvised explosive devices

An improvised explosive device or IED is a weapon:

• Incorporating destructive, lethal, noxious, pyrotechnic or incendiary chemicals;
• Assembled from improvised materials and/or placed in an improvised manner; and
• Designed to destroy, incapacitate, harass, or distract.

Because it is simple, flexible and available, the IED is the weapon most used by insurgents in Afghanistan. IEDs are used against Afghan government officials, soldiers and police; soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force; and employees of organizations such as the United Nations and the Afghan Red Crescent Society. Afghan civilians are also frequently maimed and killed by IEDs.

IEDs are made of whatever materials will achieve the desired effect in the target area. Some are based on old military ordnance (e.g., artillery rounds and mines), but many are devised from everyday materials such as fertilizer, diesel fuel, batteries and nails.

Counter-IED experts classify them according to the method used to detonate them. Here are the basic types:

• Victim-operated IEDs: Detonation is initiated by the target (person or vehicle), often by means of a pressure trigger or a trip wire, although many methods are used. These IEDs are particularly indiscriminate.
• Timed IEDs: Detonation is initiated by a timing mechanism set by the bomber.
• Command IEDS: Detonated by the bomber, who observes the target and controls the IED. Command IEDs come in several types:
• Radio-controlled: The bomber uses a wireless communication device to initiate the detonation.
• Command-wire: The bomber uses a switch wired to the IED to initiate the detonation.
• Suicide-borne: The bomber brings the IED to the target, either on his/her person or in a vehicle, and detonates the IED when close enough to destroy the target.

The phrase “roadside bomb” is misleading because IEDs are very diverse in both design and capability. Insurgents plant IEDs wherever people go — country roads and fields, city streets, houses and shops. They have a wide range of effects, depending on the bomber’s intent.

IEDs range in size from as small as a cigarette pack or a pop can to the entire cargo of a large truck. Small IEDs are designed to hurt people, so they are usually placed where pedestrians are likely to go — inside buildings, or buried on paths and in fields. Larger devices are planted on routes used by vehicles. The biggest IEDs are loaded into vehicles and can destroy major infrastructure. The attack of 19 April 1995 on the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City is a good example of what a large vehicle-borne IED can do.

Visit the Counter-IED Task Force site for more information on IEDs and what the Canadian Forces is doing to protect soldiers and civilians from them.