U.S. expands effort to counter Iraqi rebel bombs

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N05279798.htm

U.S. expands effort to counter Iraqi rebel bombs


WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The Pentagon, striving to blunt the deadliest threat posed by Iraqi insurgents, on Monday named a retired four-star general to head an expanded effort to defend against roadside bombs used to kill and maim U.S. troops.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld picked retired U.S. Army Gen. Montgomery Meigs, former commander of NATO's peacekeeping force in Bosnia, to replace the one-star general now heading a task force on so-called improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, often planted by insurgents on roads to attack U.S. vehicles.

Insurgents have vexed U.S. forces with their ability to adapt technologies and build increasingly powerful devices. An IED fashioned from four large artillery shells killed 10 U.S. Marines on a foot patrol on Thursday southwest of Falluja.

"The challenge we face from IEDs is in part technological, but goes beyond that to encompass the manner in which our forces operate, their tactics and their procedures," Rumsfeld said in a statement.