Iraq insurgents’ bombmaking gets more lethal

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16110075/

Of the many dangers lying in wait for American soldiers in Iraq, the U.S. military increasingly fears one thing: the new, advanced roadside bombs planted by insurgents.

“There are very few things we fear,” says Col. Douglass Heckman. “When a simple roadside bomb goes off, it’s not going to kill us most of the time. A sniper can’t penetrate — we keep the gunners down — small arms can’t penetrate. ... In fact, a vehicle-borne suicide bomber typically isn’t going to hurt us. The thing that scares us is the advanced roadside bombs.”

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In their sector of Baghdad east of the Tigris River, at least five U.S. military advisors have been killed by roadside bombs in the last two weeks — among them the first full colonel killed in combat in the war and two lieutenant colonels who died in the same vehicle.

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Unlike regular roadside bombs, EFP’s — explosive-formed penetrators — remain intact as they explode. The steel tubes with curved metal seals form a kind of super bullet that can go directly through a tank's armor.

The explosion turns the caps into molten jets of metal. An Iraqi translator with U.S. forces survived an attack recently that hit him in the chest with a lump of molten copper as the bomb ripped through the vehicle, officers said.

Then they are blown to bits?

Guess where else they're going to be appearing?