Baghdad hit by 'sticky bomb' terror By Daud Salman
BAGHDAD - Asaad saw a small metal object falling from the car speeding ahead of
him. It rolled to a stop against a roadside fence and exploded.
"I recognized it was a bomb and asked my driver to look out," he said. "I will
never forget the scene."
Asaad, who did not want his last name revealed, and his driver were slightly
injured by shattered glass from the blast in Baghdad last September. A month
later, his sister and her husband were less fortunate.
Rand and Ammar were shopping with their baby in Baghdad's
Karada district, on the eve of a family trip to Beirut. A bomb attached to a
car parked nearby exploded as they walked past.
The blast flung Rand against the pavement. Her husband crawled over to find her
bleeding and unconscious. Injured and unable to find his baby, he fainted.
Security men found the child, alive and only slightly hurt, on a pile of debris
15 meters from the car. Rand and her husband spent several days in the hospital
being treated for severe injuries.
There is nothing to suggest Asaad, his sister or her husband were the intended
targets of the two blasts. Their injuries simply indicate the growing reach of
the latest weapon terrorizing Baghdad: the "sticky bomb".
The device gets its nickname from the adhesive tape or magnets used to attach
it to vehicles. Placed near the fuel tank, it can be an effective assassination
tool, creating an explosion large enough to destroy the vehicle.
Dozens of Iraqis have been killed or maimed by sticky bombs in the last six
months, most of them in Baghdad.
Small and insidious, the devices are the weapon of choice for militants whose
movements have been curtailed by the proliferation of checkpoints in Baghdad.
The United States military and Iraqi security forces warned late last year that
sticky bombs attacks were on the rise.
Asaad says his brother-in-law feared something bad was going to happen on the
day he went to the market in Karada.
"He hesitated to go shopping but he went on my sister's insistence, to buy
things for the baby. Even after parking, he didn't want to get out of the car,"
Hameed said. "He regrets not having listened to his instincts."
In car parks across Baghdad, people can be seen carefully inspecting their
vehicles before getting in - sometimes even lying on the ground to check the
chassis.
Uday, a Baghdad graduate student who also did not want his last name revealed
because of security concerns, has relatives in the security forces who feel
particularly threatened.
"My brothers always check the splash guards in their cars before getting in.
They also use mirrors to look underneath them," he said. "We always feel we are
going to be targeted by the terrorist groups."
The first such sticky bombs in Iraq were used against politicians, members of
the security forces and Sunni Arab leaders who had begun cooperating with US
forces against al-Qaeda.
Many still attempt to target prominent figures: the US military announced this
week that police in Baghdad had discovered one of the devices planted under the
car of an unnamed leader of the Sons of Iraq, a largely Sunni Arab group of
former insurgents who now cooperate with Iraqi and US forces.
Alert to the threat, most leaders now take precautions against the attacks. As
a result, the militants are seeking softer targets - relatively affluent Iraqis
who own their own cars but cannot afford to keep them under constant guard.
"The sticky bombs are no longer used against leaders because they have good
security," said Walid Sherko, a Kurdish deputy and a member of the parliament's
security and defense committee. "Most officials' bodyguards are trained to
counter attacks. Recently, the bombs have been used against ordinary citizens
in Baghdad, who are an easy target."
Muhammad Ajaj, a military analyst, says the sticky bombs have struck at
Baghdad's professional class - including university students, doctors and
journalists - in an apparent campaign of psychological warfare.
"Such attacks affect people's psychology, spreading panic and fear," he said.
"The bombs are easy to build and to plant and they now pose a bigger threat
than the larger bombs."
He says the bombs can be quickly attached to cars that are not parked in a
secure area - and can also be fixed at traffic lights by children, beggars and
hawkers paid to plant the devices.
Ajaj adds that the sticky bomb will remain a threat unless more checkpoints are
equipped with the technology to detect explosives. However, the technology is
only as effective as the person handling it - guards must also be thoroughly
trained.
"Dangerous material can pass undetected ... because of the inexperience of the
person using [the equipment]," said Mohammed al-Askari, spokesman for the
ministry of defense.
The authorities have enlisted citizens as their first line of defense against
sticky bombs. A public information campaign has been launched urging vehicle
owners to be alert.
Advertisements on Iraqi TV and radio stations and in the official al-Sabah
newspaper have advised civilians on how to check their vehicles for bombs.
Attacks can be thwarted if "people are taught how to examine their cars
themselves", Askari said.
Daud Salman is an IWPR-trained journalist in Baghdad.
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