IED attacks up but casualty rate has gone down

It looks like that extra armour that the soldiers demanded has paid off.
Even though the number of road side bombs targeting supply convoys have risen a lot, the rate of casualties from those bombings has gone down.

tri-city herald

"As a matter of fact, we have seen an increase in the use of IEDs on our convoys," he said, using the military's acronym for improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs. "And our main threat is the IED for the logistics convoys coming from Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey, and then going to the Baghdad area."

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon by a video link from his headquarters at Balad air base, north of Baghdad, Fontaine said more than 2,000 supply vehicles have been given extra armor and that no vehicle is sent outside a secure base without armor.

"That's a good news story, as far as our up-armoring is concerned," he said. "Because we have up-armored our vehicles the casualties have decreased significantly even though IED attacks are increasing." He did not offer specific casualty figures.

That's good to hear that they've up-armored so many vehicles.
With such a high number of IEDs, they sure needed it.

This reason is probably why the coalition and Iraqi security forces are seeing an increase in ‘shaped’ charges and are worrisome about the relative free flow of munitions from across borders.

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the insurgents are using the method where they lay 3 anti tank mines on top of each other. if the first failed to destroy the vehicle the second and third would help penetrate the weakened armor. its nothing new since an Abrams tank was destroyed by such IED, i believe the Israelis lost a Merkava against one.

I want to point out here that the IED attack rate has increased because the insurgents have all but abandoned other types of attacks as they get decimated otherwise.

There are rarely reports of attacks other than IED's and random mortar attacks now. Even the mortar attacks are only 1 or 2 rounds as the US is using new radar that can pin point the source instantly.

I actually see this is a major sign of the effectiveness of the coalition forces in Iraq.

Wow this is good, and that coupled with this, and this.
And many more ops are changing Iraq. IMO were doing what we should have done in Vietnam. That being, reaching out to the people.

Originally posted by skippytjc
I want to point out here that the IED attack rate has increased because the insurgents have all but abandoned other types of attacks as they get decimated otherwise.

I don't think they've abandoned other attacks yet.
The IED attacks still account for less than half of US deaths each month, with only July having surpassed the 50% mark.

Hostile fire is actually the largest cause of death in an average month.

So far in August 2005, out of 44 deaths, there have been 19 (43.2%) caused by IEDs, 16 (36.3%) caused by 'other hostile fire', 6 (13.6%) caused by car bombs, 3 (6.8%) non-hostile fatalities, and 0 deaths caused by RPG or Mortar attacks.

Look on page five of this PDF to see the statistics throughout the war:
brookings.edu...

Hot damn! Unfortunately we haveta remember what happened with that poor AAV and the men inside. Those monster IED's are what should be watched out for. If the insurgents ran out of cell phones, everyone would laugh so hard! Keep the relatively good news coming everyone it's really making my week.

Originally posted by AceOfBase

Originally posted by skippytjc
I want to point out here that the IED attack rate has increased because the insurgents have all but abandoned other types of attacks as they get decimated otherwise.

I don't think they've abandoned other attacks yet.
The IED attacks still account for less than half of US deaths each month, with only July having surpassed the 50% mark.

Hostile fire is actually the largest cause of death in an average month.

So far in August 2005, out of 44 deaths, there have been 19 (43.2%) caused by IEDs, 16 (36.3%) caused by 'other hostile fire', 6 (13.6%) caused by car bombs, 3 (6.8%) non-hostile fatalities, and 0 deaths caused by RPG or Mortar attacks.

Look on page five of this PDF to see the statistics throughout the war:
brookings.edu...

Um...Car bombs ARE IED's silly. Just a different delivery mothod, so IED's, for the month you quoted, was 57%, not 43.2%. And the vast majority of all the hostile fire are sniper attacks. The Insurgents RARELY expose themselves to direct fire, as they quickly and very effectivly get killed when they do.


Again Ace, your post here is clear evidence of the Insurgencies diminishing effectiveness.