page_title: Improvised explosive device
section_title: Iraq
hierarchical_section_title: Improvised explosive device / Historical use / Iraq
caption_attribution_description: English: In this file photo, a Stryker lies on its side after surviving a buried IED blast in 2007.
context_page_description: An improvised explosive device is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechanism. IEDs are commonly used as roadside bombs.
  IEDs are generally seen in heavy terrorist actions or in asymmetric unconventional warfare by insurgent guerrillas or commando forces in a theatre of operations. In the second Iraq War, insurgents used IEDs extensively against U.S.-led forces and by the end of 2007 IEDs were responsible for approximately 63% of coalition deaths in Iraq. They are also used in Afghanistan by insurgent groups, and have caused over 66% of coalition casualties in the 2001–present Afghanistan War.
  IEDs were also used frequently by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka.
context_section_description: In the 2003–2011 Iraq War, IEDs have been used extensively against Coalition forces and by the end of 2007 they have been responsible for at least 64% of Coalition deaths in Iraq.
  Beginning in July 2003, the Iraqi insurgency used IEDs to target invading coalition vehicles. According to the Washington Post, 64% of U.S. deaths in Iraq occurred due to IEDs. A French study showed that in Iraq, from March 2003 to November 2006, on a global 3,070 deaths in the US-led invading coalition soldiers, 1,257 were caused by IEDs, i.e. 41%. That is to say more than in the "normal fights" (1027 dead, 34%). Insurgents now use the bombs to target not only invading coalition vehicles but Iraqi police as well.
  Common locations for placing these bombs on the ground include animal carcasses, soft drink cans, and boxes.  Typically they explode underneath or to the side of the vehicle to cause the maximum amount of damage; however, as vehicle armour was improved on military vehicles, insurgents began placing IEDs in elevated positions such as on road signs, utility poles, or trees, in order to hit less protected areas.
  IEDs in Iraq may be made with artillery or mortar shells or with varying amounts of bulk or homemade explosives.  Early during the Iraq war, the bulk explosives were often obtained from stored munitions bunkers to include stripping landmines of their explosives.
  Despite the increased armor, IEDs are killing military personnel and civilians with greater frequency. May 2007 was the deadliest month for IED attacks thus far, with a reported 89 of the 129 invading coalition casualties coming from an IED attack. According to the Pentagon, 250,000 tons (out of 650,000 tons total) of Iraqi heavy ordnance were looted, providing a large supply of ammunition for the insurgents.
  In October 2005, the UK government charged that Iran was supplying insurgents with the technological know-how to make shaped charge IEDs. Both Iranian and Iraqi government officials denied the allegations.
  During the Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017), ISIL has made extensive use of suicide VBIEDs, often driven by children, elderly and disabled.
caption: A Stryker lies on its side following a buried IED blast in Iraq. (2007)
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