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IED casualties in Iraq drop sharply

The number of roadside bombs in Iraq that exploded or were discovered and neutralized tumbled from a high of about 2,600 per month in March and June of 2007 to 555 in August 2008, a decrease of 79 percent.

Coalition casualties fell at a similar rate from August 2006 to August 2008, according to U.S. Central Command. The command says 47 troops were killed by roadside bombs in August 2006, but only seven this past August — an 85 percent decline. And while 384 troops were wounded by roadside bombs two years ago, that figure fell to 52 in August — an 86 percent reduction.

Roadside bombs remain the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq. The military does not provide specific figures, but Pentagon data show that about 70 percent of combat deaths have been caused by roadside bombs. The Pentagon says 4,151 troops have died in Iraq since the start of the war.

The roadside bomb casualty figures, declassified for the first time by CentCom and provided to Military Times on Sept. 17 by the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, mirror a substantial reduction in violence in Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently told House lawmakers that while the situation in Iraq remains fragile, overall violence there has fallen 80 percent in the past year.

The improving situation has prompted President Bush to bring another 8,000 troops home from Iraq by early February and bump up U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan, where coalition forces are fighting a revitalized insurgency.

CentCom’s figures on roadside bomb incidents in Iraq did not specify the types of bombs identified. The deadliest type — so-called explosively formed projectiles — began appearing in late 2006. At the height of their employment, EFPs represented 5 percent to 10 percent of total roadside bombs, but were causing 40 percent of U.S. casualties, according to Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, director of JIEDDO.

U.S. officials claim that parts for the armor-piercing bombs and training in how to use them have been supplied by members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Quds Force in an effort to bolster Shiite militias operating in Iraq — a charge Iran first denied, then subsequently acknowledged with a 2007 promise to end support for extremists in Iraq.

After a Sept. 16 hearing before a House Armed Services subcommittee, Metz said that the number of EFPs in Iraq detected this month could be measured in “low double digits” and that none have been found in Afghanistan where, he said, they have been relatively rare.

“They are way down,” Metz said. “And that’s a very good thing because ... an EFP is a very lethal and accurate weapon.”

The EFP numbers have fallen, Metz said, because of the focus the U.S. has placed on the so-called “special groups” that are said to be importing and emplacing them.

Metz’s characterization of recent EFP detection is as specific as it gets for roadside bomb figures in Afghanistan; CentCom has not declassified those data.