Car bomb 155282 224627442 2008-07-09T18:46:06Z 80.161.86.168 /* Attacks */ The previous description of containment of explosives makes no sense and is wrong. {{otheruses2|Car bomb}} {{terrorism}} A '''car bomb''' is an [[Bomb|explosive device]] placed in a [[automobile|car]] or other [[vehicle]] and then [[vehicle explosion|detonated]]. It is commonly used as a weapon of [[assassination]], [[terrorism]], or [[guerrilla warfare]], to kill the occupant(s) of the vehicle, people near the blast site, or to damage buildings or other property. Car bombs act as their own delivery mechanisms and can carry a relatively large amount of [[explosives]] without attracting suspicion. The U.S. military and law enforcement agencies often call a car bomb a '''"VBIED",''' an acronym standing for '''"Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device",''' or '''"SVBIED"''' if it is used in a [[suicide attack]]. {{TOC-left}} == Usage == ===Assassination=== The earliest car bombs were intended for assassination. These were often wired to the car's [[ignition system]], to explode when the car was started. Ignition triggering is now rare, as it is easy to detect and hard to install &mdash; interfering with the circuitry is time-consuming and [[car alarm]]s can be triggered by drains on the car's electrical system. Also, the target may start the car remotely (inadvertently or otherwise), or the target may be a passenger a safe distance away when the car starts. It is now more common for assassination bombs to be affixed to the underside of the car then detonated remotely, by the car's motion or by other means. The bomb is exploded as the target approaches or starts the vehicle or, more commonly, after the vehicle begins to move, when the target is more likely to be inside. For this reason, security guards often check the underside of vehicles with a mirror mounted on a long pole. [[Image:US Army Humvee attacked.jpg|thumb|left|[[U.S. Army]] [[HMMWV|Humvee]] attacked by a vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), [[Baghdad]], [[Iraq]]]] ===Attacks=== A car bomb is an effective weapon because it is a easy way to transport a large ammount of explosives and flammable material to the site where the explosion should take place. A car bomb also produces a large amount of shrapnel, or flying debris, that causes secondary damage to bystanders and buildings. ====Suicide bombing==== In recent years, car bombs have become widely used by [[suicide bomber]]s who seek to ram the car into a building and simultaneously detonate it. ====Countermeasures==== Defending against a car bomb involves keeping vehicles at a distance from vulnerable targets by using [[Jersey barrier]]s, concrete blocks or bollards, or by hardening buildings to withstand an explosion. Since the height of the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (PIRA) campaign, the entrance to Downing Street has been closed, preventing the general public from getting near [[10 Downing Street|Number 10]]. Where major public roads pass near buildings, road closures may be the only option (thus, for instance, in [[Washington, D.C.]] the portion of [[Pennsylvania Avenue]] immediately in front of the [[White House]]) is closed to traffic). Historically these tactics have encouraged potential bombers to target "soft" or unprotected targets, such as markets.<ref>See Davis.</ref> The U.S. State Department has published a guide on car bomb awareness.<ref>[http://wikileaks.cx/wiki/When_broken_down_vehicles_go_boom! "Terrorist Tactics: When broken down vehicles go boom!", U.S. State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security, December 2005]</ref> ==History== [[Image:Car bomb in Iraq.jpg|right|thumb|250px|A 2005 car bombing in Iraq, in which a second car bomb was detonated while Coalition forces were investigating the scene of an earlier such blast, resulting in 18 casualties.]] [[Image:Vbied-standards-chart.jpg|right|thumb|250px|[[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives|BATF]] summary table illustrating the size and range of effectiveness of car bombs by vehicle type used]] [[Image:Scene of Viet Cong terrorist bombing in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam., 1965.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Vietcong terror car bombing aftermath scene in Saigon, 1965.]] [[Image:Iraq carbomb.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Car bomb in [[Iraq]], made up of a number of artillery shells concealed in the back of a pickup truck.]] The first car bomb may have been the one used for the assassination attempt on Ottoman Sultan [[Abdul Hamid II]] in 1905 in [[İstanbul]] by [[Armenian people|Armenian]] separatists, in the command of [[Belgian]] [[anarchist]] [[Edward Jorris]]. In the past, groups that used car bombs have included: *In 1920, when Italian anarchist [[Mario Buda]] parked his horse-drawn wagon filled with explosives and [[shrapnel]] near the corner of Wall and Broad streets in [[New York City]], directly across from [[J P Morgan]] Company. The explosion killed 40 and wounded 200. *In 1927, [[Andrew Kehoe]] used a detonator to ignite [[dynamite]] and hundreds of [[pound (mass)|pounds]] of [[pyrotol]] which he had secretly planted inside a school. As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the [[Superintendent (education)|school superintendent]], and killing and injuring several others. In total, Kehoe killed 45 people and injured 58 making the [[Bath School disaster]] the deadliest act of [[mass murder]] in a school in U.S. history. *In the late 1940s, the Zionist group [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] used car and truck bombs against Palestinian and British targets as an attempt to end peace discussions; *The [[Viet Cong]] guerrillas used them at the end of the [[First Indochina War]] and throughout the [[Vietnam War]]; *The [[Organisation armée secrète|OAS]] used them at the end of the [[French rule in Algeria]]; *The [[Sicilian Mafia]] used them to assassinate independent magistrates in the early 1960s; *The [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|IRA]] used them frequently during its [[Provisional IRA campaign 1969–1997|campaign]] during [[the Troubles]] in [[Northern Ireland]] and [[England]]. The [[Omagh bombing]] by the [[Real IRA]], an IRA splinter group caused the most casualties in [[the Troubles]] from a single car bomb. * [[Ulster Loyalism|Loyalist]] [[paramilitary]] organisations in Northern Ireland such as the [[Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF) and [[Ulster Defence Association]] used car bombs against civilians in both [[Northern Ireland]] and the [[Republic of Ireland]]. The UVF bombs in [[Dublin and Monaghan bombings|Dublin and Monaghan]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/297183.stm BBC News]</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | authorlink = Peter Taylor (Journalist) | title = Loyalists | publisher = [[Bloomsbury Publishing]] | date = 1999 | pages = pp. 125-126 | doi = | isbn = 0-7475-4519-7}}</ref> caused the most casualties in a single day during [[the Troubles]]. *During the [[Soviet-Afghan war]], at a variety of training camps in the tribal areas of Pakistan;<ref>Davis, ch. 13, "Car-Bomb University"</ref>, the [[Inter-Services Intelligence|Pakistani ISI]] with the aid of the [[CIA]] trained [[mujahadin]] in the preparation of car bombs *Agents of the Chilean intelligence agency [[DINA]] were convicted of using car booms to assassinate [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Carlos Prats]], who were opponents of the regime of [[Augusto Pinochet]] *In the 1980s, the Latin American drug lord [[Pablo Escobar]] used vehicle bombs extensively against government forces and population centers in Latin America; *In 1995, [[Timothy McVeigh]] detonated a Ryder [[box truck]] filled with an explosive mixture ([[ANFO|fuel oil and fertilizer]]) in front of the [[Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building]] in [[Oklahoma City]] (see [[Oklahoma City bombing]]) *In the late 1990s and early 2000s, vehicular explosives were used by [[Chechen]] extremists against targets in Russia Mass-casualty car bombing, and especially suicide car bombing, is currently a predominantly [[Middle East]]ern phenomenon. The tactic was first introduced to the region by the [[Stern gang]], who used it extensively against Palestinian and British targets; it was subsequently taken up by Palestinian bombers as well.<ref>Davis, chapter 4, "Oranges for Jaffa".</ref>The tactic was widely used in the [[Lebanese Civil War]] by the [[Islamic fundamentalism|Islamic fundamentalist]] group [[Hezbollah]]. The most notable car bombing was the [[1983 Beirut barracks bombing]], which killed 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French military personnel. In the [[Lebanese civil war]], an estimated 3,641 car bombs were detonated.<ref>[http://www.cornerhouse.org/books/info.aspx?ID=1835&page=0 The Atlas Group and Walid Raad - Cornerhouse<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Groups that still use car bombs include: *Palestinian militant groups, against both military and civilian [[Israeli]] targets. *[[Tamil Tigers]], in [[Sri Lanka]]'s long-running [[Civil war in Sri Lanka|civil war]]. *[[Al-Qaeda]] (see esp. [[1998 United States embassy bombings]]) *The [[Iraqi insurgency]]. Car bombs have become more frequent during the [[Iraq War]]. An estimated 578 car bombs were detonated in Iraq between June 2003 and June 2006<ref>[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f141b23e-f86a-11db-a940-000b5df10621.html FT.com / Arts & weekend / Books - Explosive reading<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>. ==See also== [[Image:Car bombing, Baghdad.jpg|thumb|]] * [[Improvised explosive device#Car Bomb/Vehicle-borne IEDs]] * [[List of mass car bombings]] * [[:Category:Deaths by car bomb]] ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== *[[Mike Davis (scholar)|Mike Davis]], ''Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb'' (Verso: New York, 2007). ==External links== {{commonscat|Car bombs}} * [http://www.combatfilms.com/cfrtv_archive_0007.asp Video of a detected car bomb (VBIED) going off] * [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HD13Aa01.html A history of the car bomb] ([[Asia Times]]) *[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f141b23e-f86a-11db-a940-000b5df10621.html "Explosive reading", review by Daniel Swift for the ''Financial Times''] [[Category:Terrorism tactics]] [[Category:Car bombs]] [[Category:Suicide weapons]] [[Category:Improvised explosive devices]] [[ar:سيارة مفخخة]] [[bg:Кола-бомба]] [[da:Bilbombe]] [[de:Autobombe]] [[es:Coche bomba]] [[eu:Bonba-auto]] [[fr:Véhicule piégé]] [[id:Bom mobil]] [[he:מכונית תופת]] [[nl:Autobom]] [[ja:車爆弾]] [[no:Bilbombe]] [[nn:Bilbombe]] [[pt:Carro-bomba]] [[fi:Autopommi]] [[sv:Bilbomb]] [[zh:汽车炸弹]]