UZIEL Fighting System: Police & Military CQC/H2H FEBRUARY 2014 | Page 10

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The second is AQ which includes AQI, ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra. These two divisions share safe houses,
procurement of armaments, bomb making materials as well as IED expertise sharing with their affiliates and
proxies. 28
Group 1:
The ex-Baathist groups favored the use of road side bombs in 2003 against the CF and used simple
strategies as opposed to technological innovation to target troop carriers.

Standard Insurgent TTPs:
1. The IED is buried in the shoulder of the road and activated through direct contact (VIED) or
Command wire (CWIED). Unexploded ordnance (UXO) was used by some groups but not to the
degree found in Afghanistan. The Baathist groups had access to their own artillery caches.
2. Overpasses and culverts offer easy access to IED placement as the design of the infrastructure is
used for concealment.
3. The route used by CF to transport ports may not have been previously cleared by Explosive
Ordinance & Demolition Techs (EDOs) or the IED was placed during the night. The corner cuts off
the driver’s field of view as the IED is hidden in a berm or in the soft shoulder. Elevated PIR sensors
activate Explosively Formed Projectiles (EFP). This strategy offers many variances.
4. Road elevations can cause the vehicle to be at a slower rate of speed after the crest increasing
the likelihood of it being caught within the kill-zone radius (primary wave) of the IED. Long Range
Cordless Phones (LRCT) are effective countermeasures preventing the terrorist from being located
near the device.

A component of the type of IED
which could be used in the above
scenarios is a 152mm artillery
munition

28

Laub,Zachary.(January 9,2014)Al-Qaeda in Iraq (a.k.a. Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria).
Cfr.org;http://www.cfr.org/iraq/al-qaeda-iraq-k-islamic-state-iraq-greater-syria/p14811,
accessed 22nd January 2014

UZIEL Fighting Systems 2014