Troops' Recurring Nightmare in Iraq

In southern Iraq, where U.S. troops and the remnants of the multinational coalition wage a low-intensity war against militant factions themselves at war with each other, soldiers say one of the enemy's weapons has blown their confidence more than all the others. So called EFPs, or Explosively Formed Penetrators, have become the weapon du jour among the Shi'ite fighters. The devices cap a tube or pipe full of explosives with a solid copper disk that, due to the force and heat of the blast, transforms itself into an armor-piercing slug. EFPs can destroy Humvees and disable even the Abrams tank. U.S. officials insist the weapons are made or at least designed in Iran but have so far failed to produce a direct link. And while EFPs are only a small fraction of the bombs used by opponents of the U.S., news reports say that they caused 23 of the 69 U.S. fatalities in the month of July. To the soldiers who face the threat on a daily basis here, it doesn't really matter whether EFPs come from Iran or are made in Iraq. They just hope and pray they can find them and disarm them before they explode.

That tension was evident on a U.S. patrol this week to a remote outpost in Babil Province, which strides a sectarian fault line between Sunni central Iraq and the Shi'ite south. On their way to an area infested with Sunni fighters loyal to al-Qaeda, U.S. soldiers had to pass through a sector heavily influenced by the Jaish al Mahdi, the militia headed by radical Shia cleric Moqtada al Sadr, whose fighters have used many EFPs against U.S. troops with devastating effect. The Americans said they almost preferred al-Qaeda territory. "I don't think you'll find a guy out here who'll be scared to take these dudes on with a rifle," says Sgt. Jason Fagan, 28, a former Arkansas deputy sheriff who rode as truck commander riding shotgun. "Every EFP that goes off kills something like two-point-five soldiers," Fagan says in a thick drawl. "That's the only thing I'm really afraid of out here."

With only a month to go on their 13-month tour, the Alaska-based paratroopers didn't take chances. They arrived here a year ago and already four members of their 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, have been killed by EFPs. Pulling up on a checkpoint manned by a half-dozen new members of a local citizen militia organized by local sheiks and supported by the U.S. military, Fagan's gunner spotted a suspicious-looking object alongside the road: a half-empty Gatorade bottle with a wooden stake stuck through it.

"Looks like some sort of marking device. See it? Right there, where that trail comes out?" said Sgt. Lewis Elvis, the gunner. All the vehicles halted in the road. Radios squawked and screeched. Iraqi recruits ran up from their post wearing orange armbands and totting short-stocked AK-47s. The Iraqis would secure it and check it once the American convoy rolled on. "It just looked a little weird," the gunner said on the intra-vehicle radio from his turret. "Better safe than sorry," he said.

No one hassled him for being over-cautious. As they rolled on, they continued scouring the path for anything else out of the norm. Their commanders have used discretionary funds to hire local workers to clear the brush back 10 meters or so from the road. They say it's cheaper than a life. Back at their base, they have a display of an EFP in the hallway to the chow hall that soldiers must pass three times a day. The command post walls are lined with photos of bombs the battalion has discovered and the damage they can do to their vehicles when they don't.

"They can hide that thing [an EFP] in a freakin peanut butter jar and toss it in the dirt. It don't matter how big it is," says Fagan as his convoy inched forward. "Its just molten copper ripping through these Humvees," says Sgt. Matthew Stankan, 22, the driver. "It goes in one side and out the other and takes everything in between with it." Elvis, the gunner, still seemed a little insecure about stopping the entire convoy's progress to investigate a Gatorade bottle. He spoke quietly into his headset mic. "The colonel hit it right on the head when he said that those things are 'demoralizing,'" he says. "Damn straight. Ain't nothing you can do."

EFPs have been used in improvised explosive devices against armoured cars, for example[5] in the 1989 assassination of the German banker Alfred Herrhausen (attributed to the Red Army Faction)[citation needed], and by the Hezbollah in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict[citation needed]. A recent development is their widespread introduction in IEDs by insurgents in Iraq[6].

The charges are generally cylindrical, fabricated from commonly available metal pipe, with the forward end closed by a concave copper or steel disk-shaped liner to create a shaped charge. Explosive is loaded behind the metal liner to fill the pipe. Upon detonation, the explosive projects the liner to form a projectile at a velocity well over 1 km/s, depending on the design and type of explosive used.

Due to the fact that they use explosives to form a molten copper penetrator instead of using an explosive blast or solid metal penetrator these charges are extremely dangerous even to the new generation of MRAP's (which are made to withstand an anti-tank mine), and many tanks[7].

Often mounted on crash barriers at window level, they are placed along roadsides at choke points where vehicles must slow down, such as intersections and junctions. This gives the operator time to judge the moment to fire, when the vehicle is moving more slowly[8].

Detonation is controlled by cable, radio control (RC), or remote arming with passive IR (PIR) trigger. EFPs can be deployed singly, in pairs, or in arrays, depending on the tactical situation.

The centerpiece of the evidentiary display, however, was a gray metal pipe about 10 inches long and 6 inches in diameter, the exterior casing of what the military said was an EFP, the roadside bomb that shoots out fist-sized wads of nearly-molten copper that can penetrate the armor on an Abrams tank

U.S. Sees New Weapon In Iraq: Iranian EFPs
Military: Iranian Government Supplies "Explosively Formed Penetrators"

U.S. military officials charged on Sunday that the highest levels of the Iranian leadership ordered Shiite militants in Iraq to be armed with sophisticated armor-piercing roadside bombs that have killed more than 170 American forces.

The military command in Baghdad denied, however, that any newly-smuggled Iranian weapons were behind the five U.S. military helicopter crashes since Jan. 20 — four that were shot out of the sky by insurgent gunfire.

A fifth chopper crash has tentatively been blamed on mechanical failure. In the same period, two private security company helicopters also have crashed but the cause was unclear.

The deadly and highly sophisticated weapons the U.S. military said were coming into Iraq from Iran are known as "explosively formed penetrators," or EFPs.

U.S. intelligence says the weapons are going to Shiite militias that include rogue elements of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi army militia and a breakaway faction of the Badr Corps, the armed wing of a powerful Shiite party, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.

The Iraqi government not only knows but has asked the Iranian government to stop.

The presentation of evidence was the result of weeks of preparation and revisions as U.S. officials put together a package of material to support the Bush administration's claims of Iranian intercession on behalf of militant Iraqis fighting American forces.

Senior U.S. military officials in Baghdad said the display of evidence was prompted by the military's concern for "force protection," which, they said, was guaranteed under the United Nations resolution that authorizes American soldiers to be in Iraq.

Three senior military officials who explained the evidence said the "machining process" used in the construction of the deadly bombs had been traced back to Iran.

The experts, who spoke to a large gathering of reporters on condition that they not be further identified, said the supply trail began with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, which also is accused of arming the Hezbollah guerrilla army in Lebanon. The officials said the EFP weapon was first tested there.

The officials said the Revolutionary Guard and its Quds force report directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The so-called Iran dossier, a small portion of which was revealed in Baghdad on Sunday, was revised heavily after officials decided it was not ready for release as planned last month. U.S. military officials in Baghdad had even scheduled a briefing for reporters only to cancel it a day later.

Senior U.S. officials in Washington — gun-shy after the drubbing the administration took for the faulty intelligence leading to the 2003 Iraq invasion — had held back because they were unhappy with the original presentation.

The display of evidence appeared to be part of the White House drive that has empowered U.S. forces in Iraq to use all means to curb Iranian influence in the country, including killing Iranian agents.

It included a Powerpoint slide presentation and a handful of mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades which the military officials said were made in Iran.

The centerpiece of the evidentiary display, however, was a gray metal pipe about 10 inches long and 6 inches in diameter, the exterior casing of what the military said was an EFP, the roadside bomb that shoots out fist-sized wads of nearly-molten copper that can penetrate the armor on an Abrams tank.

The U.S. officials said there was no evidence of Iranian made EFPs having fallen into the hands of Sunni insurgents who operate mainly in Anbar province in the west of Iraq, Baghdad and regions surrounding the capital.

"We know more than we can show," said one of the senior officials, when pressed for more evidence that the EFPs were made in Iran.

anyone can make crude and simple EFP munitions in a basic workshop. All you need is a lump of plastic explosive and a piece of copper. Shape the copper into a saucer, put the explosive under it, and you're there. Obviously this will be a lot less efficient, accurate and reliable than something like SLAM (optimal design of the the metal 'lens' is an art requiring a lot of computer power), but you can compensate by making it ten times bigger if you need to.

Real E.F.P.: Pocket-Sized Tank Killer

The pictures released last week of Iraqi high-tech explosives surprised me. These special 'superbombs' that have caused so many US casualties -- they look like they had been assembled in someone's garage.

These bombs belong to a class known as EFP --'Explosively Formed Projectile' or 'Explosively Formed Penetrator,' depending on who you're talking to. They compress a metal liner into a slug and fire it at the target some distance away.

slam3.jpegThe picture shows what a real EFP munition looks like. This is M2 Selectable Lightweight Attack Munition (SLAM). It's small enough to put in your pocket and weighs a couple of pounds.

This version has been used by US Special Forces for the last 15 years or so. As GlobalSecurity.org describes it, SLAM is versatile, too:

It will be used to support hit-and-run, ambush, and harassing, and urban warface missions. SLAM will also be employed by Light Combat Engineers and Rangers where missions warrant the use of such a device....SLAM is lightweight, lethal, easily emplaced, and can be carried in the quantity necessary to neutralize a broad range of targets.

Different modes allow SLAM to be triggered by the heat or magnetic signature of a passing vehicle or by a timer -- or it can be set off by a human operator. It can be emplaced in seconds and spits out a lethal slug which can punch through 40mm of steel armor at a range of 25 feet. You can leave it on the ground covered in dirt to attack a vehicle's belly, or conceal it beside a road for side attack.

No doubt the Russians and Chinese have their own versions of SLAM, and these have probably been copied too. So you might expect a rougher, cheaper copy to appear in Iraq if it was supplied from the outside.

But as has been observed here, anyone can make crude and simple EFP munitions in a basic workshop. All you need is a lump of plastic explosive and a piece of copper. Shape the copper into a saucer, put the explosive under it, and you're there. Obviously this will be a lot less efficient, accurate and reliable than something like SLAM (optimal design of the the metal 'lens' is an art requiring a lot of computer power), but you can compensate by making it ten times bigger if you need to.

Maybe the insurgents should be given some credit for being able to build their own gear, or maybe there's more intelligence we don't know. But if EFP mines were being supplied by an outside source, you might expect to see somethng a lot slicker.

UPDATE 11:37: Speaking of surprises, Centcom commander Adm. Fox Fallon doesn't agree that the Iranian government has been supplying Iraq's EFPs. He's not alone. Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Peter Pace, on the other hand, seemed to back away from his previous, doubting statements -- at least a little. More here.

UPDATE 01:20: The bombs aren't the only issue, of course. According to the Telegraph, Iranian-supplied sniper rifles are also making their way into Iraq.

UPDATE 02:24: Bush has no doubt.

UPDATE 15/02/07: Steyr, the Austrian makers of those .50 cal sniper rifles say there's no proof they came from Iran - and that they might not even be Steyr-made rifles at all.

-- David Hambling