BAGHDADI, Iraq -- Roadside bombs have killed or wounded almost 20,000 American troops in Iraq since the war began, a tragic cost that continues despite a two-year, $8 billion Pentagon campaign against networks of bomb-makers and those who plant and detonate the devices.
Crafted out of still-plentiful weapons looted from Iraqi arms depots left unguarded after the 2003 U.S. invasion, the bombs are a deadly form of warfare that U.S. officials acknowledge will continue to kill and maim Americans wherever they deploy, long after the Iraq war is over.
"This is a long-term problem, and it is not peculiar to Iraq and Afghanistan," said retired Army Gen. Montgomery Meigs, who directs the Pentagon's campaign to counter the bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. "This is going to be a permanent aspect of our military and diplomatic life, regardless of [what happens in] Iraq and Afghanistan."
Eleven soldiers were killed by makeshift bombs in the past week, pushing the U.S. death toll in Iraq over 3,500, a grim reminder that in this war, America's military power and technological prowess have in some measure been thwarted.
Deaths from IEDs have risen from 25 in May 2004 to 88 last month, the highest monthly toll since the war began. Nearly 1,400 Americans have been killed by the bombs since the start of the war in March 2003.
Accounting for the wounded is slower. According to the Defense Department, 17,773 U.S. military personnel were wounded by bombs as of May 19. These casualties are joined by a growing number in Afghanistan, where roadside bombs have killed 84 U.S. troops and wounded 609, as of May 19.
The battle against IEDs is being waged by troops armed with better training and an array of new sensors and devices that can jam radio and other signals that detonate the bombs.
Overhead, swarms of manned and unmanned aircraft watch key roads and intersections to detect and track bomb-planters. Surveillance is kept from towers and tethered balloons as well. Sniper teams often kill anyone caught placing an IED, or they follow the bomb planters in an attempt to penetrate their organization.
Overall, troops are discovering half of the planted bombs before they explode, and Pentagon officials assert that insurgents must work six times harder to inflict one American casualty with an IED.
