What is ied attack

Annually, IED attacks kill and injure more people than do attacks with any other type of weapon except firearms. A review of selected international media reports from to revealed more than 6, recorded IED explosions, resulting in over , casualties. Proliferation of IED use is an unmistakable trend. In alone, suicide attacks involving IEDs occurred in over 10 per cent of Member States, a greater proportion than any recorded ever before.

Why is IED use spreading? IEDs can be simple to design, and components remain cheap and easily accessible, including through criminal networks and porous borders, and as a result of corruption and poor ammunition stockpile management. Armed groups have recruited extensive cadres which can be trained to manufacture and use IEDs. You can change your cookie settings at any time. This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.

To view this licence, visit nationalarchives. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. Improvised Explosive Devices IEDs are effective weapons and can be delivered to their chosen locations in a number of ways, including by suicide bombers. Although there is no definitive physical profile for a suicide bomber, there are various signs that may indicate an individual carrying a device or conducting reconnaissance.

IEDs delivered via the post are discussed specifically within the Mail Handling section of this guidance. Read more about Mail handling and Mail Screening. Read more about Vehicle Bombs. The effects of a detonated IED can be highly destructive. In addition to the initial blast which can be lethal, debris such as broken glass and metal in the form of secondary fragmentation, can cause further injury at a considerable distance away from the seat of the explosion.

The longer term disruption as a result of the blast can last for many further weeks, leading to business continuity, economic damage and infrastructure challenges. If you think your site could be at risk from an IED, there are physical and procedural mitigation measures that can be utilised to help reduce the risk. For site specific advice, contact your local CTSA. The variety of protective security measures which may be utilised to strengthen a site against an IED attack are featured throughout this guidance.

The following points and principles however may serve as points for further discussion and inform your protective security posture:. Read more about Physical Security. A PDF is a digital representation of the print book, so while it can be loaded into most e-reader programs, it doesn't allow for resizable text or advanced, interactive functionality. The eBook is optimized for e-reader devices and apps, which means that it offers a much better digital reading experience than a PDF, including resizable text and interactive features when available.

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Improvised explosive devices IEDs are a type of unconventional explosive weapon that can be deployed in a variety of ways, and can cause loss of life, injury, and property damage in both military and civilian environments.

Terrorists, violent extremists, and criminals often choose IEDs because the ingredients, components, and instructions required to make IEDs are highly accessible. In many cases, precursor chemicals enable this criminal use of IEDs because they are used in the manufacture of homemade explosives HMEs , which are often used as a component of IEDs. Many precursor chemicals are frequently used in industrial manufacturing and may be available as commercial products for personal use. Guides for making HMEs and instructions for constructing IEDs are widely available and can be easily found on the internet.

Other countries restrict access to precursor chemicals in an effort to reduce the opportunity for HMEs to be used in IEDs. Restricting access to precursor chemicals might contribute to reducing the threat of IED attacks and in turn prevent potentially devastating bombings, save lives, and reduce financial impacts. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals prioritizes precursor chemicals that can be used to make HMEs and analyzes the movement of those chemicals through United States commercial supply chains and identifies potential vulnerabilities.

This report examines current United States and international regulation of the chemicals, and compares the economic, security, and other tradeoffs among potential control strategies. The National Academies Press and the Transportation Research Board have partnered with Copyright Clearance Center to offer a variety of options for reusing our content.