AST Digital Magazine July 2017 Digital-July | Page 58

Volume 14
July 2017 Edition
DHS Works to Mitigate Large-Scale Car
Bomb Attacks in the US
Vehicle–Borne Improvised Explosive Devices continue to
pose a real and evolving threat to even the most secure com-
pounds. The Explosives Division of the DHS S&T has taken
measures to address this threat directly.
In July of 2016, a refrigerator truck packed
with explosives detonated next to a crowded
apartment block in Baghdad’s Karrada neigh-
borhood.
known as car bombs) have been thwarted by
local security forces throughout hotspots in the
Middle East and Asia, and by U.S. coalition forc-
es in Afghanistan.
VBIEDs continue to pose a real and evolving
threat to even the most secure compounds.
The blast killed 323 people and was one of the
worst Vehicle–Borne Improvised Explosive De-
vice (VBIED also known as car bombs) attacks
ever recorded.
On May 30, 2017, a VBIED in a tanker truck
ripped through the embassy quarter of Kabul,
killing more than 150 people.
Several embassies, including those of Germany
and France, sustained damage despite the pres-
ence of blast protection structures.
In recent years, several massive VBIEDs (also
(At least 90 people were killed and around 400 were injured
in a suicide bombing. The blast hit close to the German em-
bassy, and