WASHINGTON – Insurgents in Iraq, countering improved defenses against lethal roadside bombs, are increasingly converting private houses into large-scale, booby-trapped bombs set to detonate when U.S. or Iraqi forces burst in on raids, U.S. officials say.
Since late December, U.S. forces in northern Iraq have found at least 42 so-called house-borne improvised explosive devices in their sector, many located in the middle of neighborhoods, the top U.S. general in the area said last week.
And more than a dozen were discovered in the past few weeks in Diyala province, where coalition forces are conducting major combat operations against insurgents.
Authorities said six U.S. soldiers died last month when they stepped on a trip-wire placed under a carpet in a house, triggering an explosion that destroyed much of the home.
U.S. military officials believe Sunni Muslim extremists and Shiite militias are using house bombs more often because coalition forces have become better able to detect and defuse other IEDs, such as those hidden along roadways or buried in the ground.
Most of the booby-trapped dwellings have been identified before they killed U.S. troops, and ground forces have turned to airstrikes to destroy them.
Authorities say bombing the houses is safer than sending in troops to try and neutralize a building filled with sensitive detonators and high-powered explosives.
But the airstrikes could have consequences that imperil long-term U.S. objectives, officials said. Bombs and missiles can kill or maim bystanders and cause other unintended damage that could engender the resentment of residents.
