# Crazy IED Explosion



## GAP (20 Sep 2007)

Crazy IED Explosion
Article Link

Check out this close call from an IED that was either buried too deep or didn't have enough enough fire power


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## Pte_Martin (20 Sep 2007)

Wow that was huge, glad that no one got hurt!


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## Zell_Dietrich (20 Sep 2007)

I'm glad no one was hurt also  (I'm sure we all agree on this point save a few who will wish the one(s)who plated that device got hurt... but moving on)

I'm no expert,  but that does look like a HUGE explosion.  I'm thinking it was buried to deep.


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## geo (20 Sep 2007)

Not too deep,
They did like the sappers did during WW1,  burrowed a tunnel under the asphalt roadbed

Lousy timing though


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## Greymatters (21 Sep 2007)

Not an engineer myself, but you can see a very thick layer of dirt under the asphalt as it rose during the explosion.  If the goal was just to knock over the vehicle it would have been the right depth... GEO, not doubting you, but am interested in hearing your thoughts on why it was properly placed?  Is there something you know that we are not seeing?


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## technofixit (21 Sep 2007)

There's quite a bit of power in that device for sure!  The terrorists placed their device improperly, and that's all that saved the vehicle crew.  I found it somewhat disturbing that the terrorists were able to take what must have been a considerable amount of time to place that device under the roadway.  This wasn't the work of some old guy with leftover plastic and a shoebox.  I hope that friendly forces track down the guys who put that device there and deal with them in the "appropriate fashion"


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## George Wallace (21 Sep 2007)

I haven't been able to access this video yet, but digging the 'hole' may not have been all that time consuming, if an existing culvert was used.


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## armyvern (21 Sep 2007)

And watching the video a few times, I have to go with Geo's thoughts on this one.

It looks more like the enemy's failure here was that the IED was _remote detonated_ rather than burried too deep, and someone's trigger finger was a couple milliseconds too late or too early (depending upon which vehicle one happened to be travelling in of course).

Score one for the good guys; glad they made it through good-to-go.


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## 1feral1 (21 Sep 2007)

Yes that a big one, and a very close call for those guys in that Hummer!

On my tour, there was a local Hummer which was flipped by an IED, it caught fire, the doors on the Hummer weigh almost 500 lbs each, and could not be opened from the inside or outside. I won't get too graphic, but sadly all were killed, but did not die in the explosion. The men trying to get the guys out could do nothing!

I won't forget that for as long as I live.

Wes


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## KevinB (21 Sep 2007)

Too deep and off to one side (well heck digging it in under the tarmack is tough to do in darkness)

 While it may have tossed the hummer it was not like a lot of the blasts that use their explosive force to penetrate the hull of the vehicle.



Current hummer doors are quite easy to pop and have been since early 2006 with large D rings so even if jammed a team vehicle can hook up and rip it off easily as that is how they are designed.


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## ArmyRick (21 Sep 2007)

That video was freaky. Did the blast really happen in that way or did someone slow down the frames when you see the explosion "bubble up"?


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## Franko (21 Sep 2007)

George Wallace said:
			
		

> I haven't been able to access this video yet, but digging the 'hole' may not have been all that time consuming, if an existing culvert was used.



George,

Sent via home addy.


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## George Wallace (21 Sep 2007)

Just watched it on another computer (one that doesn't block Active-X) and it sure looks like it was set off remotely by a guy with a very poor sense of timing.  I still have a feeling that it was planted in a culvert, as there looks to be a bit of a ditch running off to the left.  There was also some debris on the roadway at the site before the explosion.  

ArmyRick

The soundtrack wasn't slowed down, so I don't think the video was either.


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## Kat Stevens (22 Sep 2007)

Think of the shock wave as a giant bubble.  If it rises up directly under a light vehicle like a hummer, it will pick it up and snap it in half.  A heavier LAV type would at the very least get turned rubber side up.  Poor placement and rushed delivery, but I bet there wasn't a clean pair of BVDs in the convoy after.


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## DirtyDog (22 Sep 2007)

That seemed like a fairly wimpy IED.  Underpowered and too deep.


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## Kat Stevens (22 Sep 2007)

UNDERPOWERED!?  Do you have any idea how much HE it takes to throw a pile of dirt and pavement that big, that high in the air?  Check the diameter of the hole, that's a decent crater you've got there.  Consider that it was probably in a culvert, and a goodly percentage of the explosive force was shot out the pipe (path of least resistance and other such irrelevant physical laws), and you've got a fair sized fire cracker there.


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## Pte_Martin (22 Sep 2007)

DirtyDog said:
			
		

> That seemed like a fairly wimpy IED.  Underpowered and too deep.



In your profile it says you have less than a year experience, have you been overseas, How would you know what a wimpy or underpower IED would be? I'm just curious


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## DirtyDog (22 Sep 2007)

Infantry_ said:
			
		

> In your profile it says you have less than a year experience, have you been overseas, How would you know what a wimpy or underpower IED would be? I'm just curious


Just passing on the observations of a few friends that defintely have their fair share of IED experience.  They were in general agrreement that it was probably a single 155mm shell.

And for what it's worth, comparing this video to quite a few other IED videos, it looks quite small in comparison.


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## ArmyRick (22 Sep 2007)

A single 155mm shell rigged into a IED? Highly doubt it, buds. Maybe some of our combat engineer brothers could offer an opinion of how much that was.


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## 1feral1 (22 Sep 2007)

DirtyDog said:
			
		

> Just passing on the observations of a few friends that defintely have their fair share of IED experience.  They were in general agrreement that it was probably a single 155mm shell.
> 
> And for what it's worth, comparing this video to quite a few other IED videos, it looks quite small in comparison.



Never speculate DD, you just end up making an ass out of yourself. There is lots of power in that IED, don't let the video decieve you.

Wes


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## DirtyDog (22 Sep 2007)

Wesley  Down Under said:
			
		

> Never speculate DD, you just end up making an *** out of yourself. There is lots of power in that IED, don't let the video decieve you.
> 
> Wes


Yeah, I'm definitely out of my lane, just passing along what I was told from people who I thought had a fair amount of insight.  Particulariy one friend who's had 3 tours in Iraq and' been through atleast half a dozen IED attacks.


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## vonGarvin (22 Sep 2007)

watching the vid reminded me of the mining operations in the first world war, the way that the ground lifted like that.  As for "powerless", just think about all that mass lifted up like that.  Takes a bit of power to do that, especially considering that in the explosion, the force is going in all directions, and the "dirt" we see flying up, albeit in seemingly slow motion, is just one side of the explosion.  Yikes, that's all I can say.


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## 1feral1 (22 Sep 2007)

DirtyDog said:
			
		

> Yeah, I'm definitely out of my lane, just passing along what I was told from people who I thought had a fair amount of insight.  Particulariy one friend who's had 3 tours in Iraq and' been through atleast half a dozen IED attacks.



I heard it from a friend....... thats not worth its weight in bat shyte!

Mate, with one yr's experience... you are out of your lane, glad you acknowledge that.

I was there, and although we did not get one ourselves ( previous tour had 5 IED's targeted at Australians, and tours since have been smashed too - we were fortunate), I was present when a biggie went off, a truck VBIED, heard it go, then seen the Hiroshima 'mushroo'm, and that took the lives of 69 people on Valentine's Day this year. I have pics, but they are too big to be loaded on here, or I would.

Our snipers were in a loophole in a hide near by, and seen bodies in the air higher than a 10 storey building!!! That indident was only one of thousands in Baghdad in a 7 month period. During my time there, IED's were  4804, VBIED's  874. Again Baghdad alone. I have no idea what the country total was.

Not a happy town. Glad I am home, yet last night's thunderstorms had my adrenal gland being exercised. Shyte, I have become conditioned. 

Wes


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## KevinB (23 Sep 2007)

Wesley  Down Under said:
			
		

> I heard it from a friend....... thats not worth its weight in bat shyte!





> Our snipers were in a loophole in a hide near by, and seen bodies in the air higher than a 10 storey building!!!



The irony...   ;D


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## 1feral1 (23 Sep 2007)

Infidel-6 said:
			
		

> The irony...   ;D



It was so noted, as it come out of the daily Int brief, which I was in attendance.

I thought to myself I hope it was not was they were pretty much certain it was.


Stay safe Kevin,


Wes


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## KevinB (23 Sep 2007)

It was too good a dig not to pass on  ;D


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## 1feral1 (23 Sep 2007)

Infidel-6 said:
			
		

> It was too good a dig not to pass on  ;D



I know, I know, ha!


Cheers,

Wes


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