A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED),[1] is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roughly divided into two main categories: those used primarily to kill the occupants of the vehicle (often as an assassination) and those used as a means to kill, injure or damage people and buildings outside the vehicle. The latter type may be parked (the vehicle disguising the bomb and allowing the bomber to get away), or the vehicle might be used to deliver the bomb (often as part of a suicide bombing).
It is commonly used as a weapon of terrorism or guerrilla warfare to kill people near the blast site or to damage buildings or other property.[2] Car bombs act as their own delivery mechanisms and can carry a relatively large amount of explosives without attracting suspicion. In larger vehicles and trucks, weights of around 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) or more have been used, for example, in the Oklahoma City bombing.[3] Car bombs are activated in a variety of ways, including opening the vehicle's doors, starting the engine, remote detonation, depressing the accelerator or brake pedals, or simply lighting a fuse or setting a timing device.[4] The gasoline in the vehicle's fuel tank may make the explosion of the bomb more powerful by dispersing and igniting the fuel.
The first non-suicide car bombing "fully conceptualized as a weapon of urban warfare" came January 12, 1947 when Lehi (also known as Stern Gang), a Zionist paramilitary organization, bombed the Haifa police station.[5]
In the fall of 2005, there were 140 car bombings happening per month.[5]
Car bombs are preceded by the 16th century hellburners, explosive-laden ships which were used to deadly effect by the besieged Dutch forces in Antwerp against the besieging Spanish. Though using a less refined technology, the basic principle of the hellburner is similar to that of the car bomb.[according to whom?]
Car bombs would start out with animals such as horses and cows, then it eventually emerged into a car.[5]
The first reported suicide car bombing (and possibly the first suicide bombing) was the Bath School bombings of 1927, where 45 people, including the bomber, were killed and half of a school was destroyed.[according to whom?]
Mass-casualty suicide car bombings are predominantly associated with the Middle East, particularly in recent decades. A notable suicide car bombing was the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, when two simultaneous attacks killed 241 U.S. and 58 French peacekeepers. The perpetrator of these attacks has never been positively confirmed. In the Lebanese Civil War, an estimated 3,641 car bombs were detonated.[6] The tactic was adopted by Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad,[7][8] especially during the Second Intifada (2000–2005).[9][10][11]
While not an adaptation of a people-carrying vehicle, the WW2 German Goliath remote control mine, shares many parallels with a vehicle-based IED. It approached a target (often a tank or another armoured vehicle) at some speed, and then exploded, destroying itself and the target. It was armoured so that it could not be destroyed en route. However, it was not driven by a person, instead operated by remote control from a safe distance.[12]
Prior to the 20th century, bombs planted in horse carts had been used in assassination plots, notably in the unsuccessful "machine infernale" attempt to kill Napoleon on 24 December 1800.[according to whom?]
PIRA Chief of Staff Seán Mac Stíofáin defines the car bomb as both a tactical and a strategic guerrilla warfare weapon. Strategically, it disrupts the ability of the enemy government to administer the country, and hits simultaneously at the core of its economic structure by means of massive destruction. From a tactical point of view, it ties down a large number of security forces and troops around the main urban areas of the region in conflict.[17]
Car bombs are effective weapons as they are an easy way to transport a large number of explosives to the intended target. A car bomb also produces copious shrapnel, or flying debris, and secondary damage to bystanders and buildings. In recent years, car bombs have become widely used by suicide bombers.[18][19][20]
Countermeasures
Defending against a car bomb involves keeping vehicles at a distance from vulnerable targets by using roadblocks and checkpoints, Jersey barriers, concrete blocks or bollards, metal barriers, or by hardening buildings to withstand an explosion. The entrance to Downing Street in London has been closed since 1991 in reaction to the Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign, preventing the general public from getting near Number 10. Where major public roads pass near buildings, road closures may be the only option (thus, for instance, in Washington, D.C. the portion of Pennsylvania Avenue immediately in front of the White House is closed to traffic). Historically these tactics have encouraged potential bombers to target "soft" or unprotected targets, such as markets.[21]
Suicide usage
In the Iraqi and Syrian Civil War, the car bomb concept was modified so that it could be driven and detonated by a driver but armoured to withstand incoming fire. The vehicle would be driven to its target area, in a similar fashion to a kamikaze plane of WW2.[22] These were known by the acronym SVBIED (from Suicide Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device) or VBIEDs. This saw generally civilian cars with armour plating added, that would protect the car for as long as possible, so that it could reach its intended target.[22] Cars were sometimes driven into enemy troop areas, or into incoming enemy columns.[23] Most often, the SVBIEDs were used by ISIL against Government forces, but also used by Syrian rebels (FSA and allied militias, especially the Al-Nusra Front) against government troops.[24]
The vehicles have become more sophisticated, with armour plating on the vehicle, protected vision slits, armour plating over the wheels so they would withstand being shot at, and also in some cases, additional metal grating over the front of the vehicle designed to crush or destroy shaped charges such as those used on rocket propelled grenades.[25]
In some cases, trucks were also used as well as cars. They were sometimes used to start an assault. Generally, the vehicles had a large space that would contain very heavy explosives.[26] In some cases, animal drawn carts with improvised explosive devices have been used, generally either mules or horses.[27][28] Tactically, a single vehicle may be used, or an initial "breakthrough" vehicle, then followed by another vehicle.[29]
While many car bombs are disguised as ordinary vehicles,[30] some that are used against military forces have improvised vehicle armour attached to prevent the driver from being shot when attacking a fortified outpost.[31]
Car bombs were also a very effective method for terrorists because car bombs are so cheap. Many deaths could occur with just one bomb, and it would only cost about $500 along with a stolen car. In war, money is an important thing for both sides, so this was a very effective method.[5]
TSA officers view the post-blast remains of a Dodge Neon after an explosive was detonated inside it during training.
Car bombs and detonators function in a diverse manner of ways and there are numerous variables in the operation and placement of the bomb within the vehicle. Earlier and less advanced car bombs were often wired to the car's ignition system, but this practice is now considered more laborious and less effective than other more recent methods, as it requires a greater amount of work for a system that can often be quite easily defused. While it is more common nowadays for car bombs to be fixed magnetically to the underside of the car, underneath the passenger or driver's seat, or inside of the mudguard, detonators triggered by the opening of the vehicle door or by pressure applied to the brakes or accelerating pedals are also used.[4]
Bombs operating by the former method of fixation to the underside of the car more often than not make use of a device called a tilt fuse. A small tube made of glass or plastic, the tilt fuse is similar in operation to a mercury switch or medical tablet tube. One end of the fuse will be filled with mercury, while the other open end is wired with the ends of an open circuit to an electrical firing system. When the tilt fuse moves or is jerked, the supply of mercury will flow to the top of the tube and close the circuit. Thus, as the vehicle goes through the regular bumping and dipping that comes with driving over a terrain, the circuit is completed, and the explosive is detonated.[4]
Car bombs are effective as booby traps because they also leave very little evidence. When an explosion happens, it is difficult for forensics to find any evidence because things either denigrate or become charred.[5]
As a safety mechanism to protect the bomber, the placer of the bomb may rig a timing device incorporated with the circuit to activate the circuit only after a certain time period, therefore ensuring the bomber will not accidentally activate the bomb before they are able to get clear of the blast radius.[4]
Even though right now car bombs are supposed to be stealth weapons that cause a good deal of damage, it is feared that they can become bigger, more lethal weapons such as the size of a trailer, making huge explosions and causing plenty of damage.[5]
1927: The Bath School disaster — Andrew Kehoe used a detonator to ignite dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside a school. As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent, and killing and injuring several others. In total, Kehoe killed 44 people and injured 58 making the Bath School bombing the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. It is possibly the first suicide car bombing in history.
Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani was assassinated by a car bomb on 8 July 1972 with his 17-year-old niece Lamees Najim in Beirut by the Israeli Mossad.
Former Chilean General Carlos Prats was killed by a car bomb on September 30, 1974, along with his wife.
Freelance terrorist Carlos the Jackal claimed responsibility for three car bomb attacks on French newspapers accused of pro-Israeli bias during the 1970s.
Cleveland mobster Danny Greene frequently used car bombs against his enemies, beginning in 1968. Afterwards, they also began to be used against Greene and his associates. The use of car bombs in Cleveland peaked in 1976, when 36 bombs exploded in the city, most of them car bombs, causing it to be nicknamed "Bomb City." Several people, including innocent bystanders, were killed or wounded. Greene himself was finally killed in a car bomb explosion himself, on October 6, 1977.
The Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka frequently made use of car bombs during that country's civil war in a campaign which lasted from 1976 until the group's defeat in 2009.
From 1979 to early 1983, under the guise of the Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners, Israel Defense Forces commanders Rafael Eitan, Avigdor Ben-Gal and Meir Dagan launched a campaign of bombings, including car, bicycle, and even donkey bombs. Initially conducted as a response to the killing of Israeli civilians at Nahariya. Largely indiscriminate in its targeting of those associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization in south, Lebanon, the FLLF attacks killed hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese, mainly in Tyre, Lebanon, Sidon and the surrounding PLO run refugee camps. After 1981, as part of Ariel Sharon's policy of goading the PLO into committing more acts of terror, justifying a military response, FLLF attacks escalated in intensity and scope, spreading to Beirut and northern Lebanon by September. The FLLF even took credit for fictional attacks on the IDF to maintain its cover as a Lebanese organisation.[35] Its most prominent attack on October 1, 1981, in West Beirut killed at least 50 and injured over 250 people. Seven other similar bombs were found and defused before they could explode.[36]
The German Red Army Faction occasionally used car bombs, such as in an unsuccessful attempt to attack a NATO school for officers in 1984.
The Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) attempted their first car bomb assassination in September 1985 and carried out at least 80 massive car bomb attacks in Spain during the last decade before putting its activities on hold in 2011.[37]
Constable Angela Taylor died on her way to collect lunch, the sole fatality of the Russell Street bombing in Melbourne, Australia on 27 March 1986. 22 others were injured.
Suicide car bombs were a regular feature against Israel in the 1982 Lebanon War which lasted from 1982 until Israel's withdrawal in 2000. The bombing campaign was waged by several groups, most prominently Hezbollah.
In the 1980s, the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar used vehicle bombs extensively against government forces and population centers in Colombia and Latin America. The most notable car bombing attack was the 1989 DAS Building bombing, which killed 63 and injured about 1,000. Also, on July 4, 1989, a car bomb killed governor of Antioquia Antonio Roldán Betancur and five others; a prominent member of Escobar's Medellin Cartel later confessed to the crime.
On 26 February 1993, Islamist terrorists led by Ramzi Yousef detonated a Ryder van filled with explosives in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Yousef's plan had been to cause one of the towers to collapse into the other, destroying both and killing thousands of people. Although this was not achieved, six people were killed, 1,402 others injured, and extensive damage was caused.
On 18 April 1993, a tanker containing 500 kilograms of explosives exploded near the mosque in Vitez, destroying the offices of the Bosnian War Presidency, killing at least six people and injuring 50 others. The ICTY accepted that this action was a piece of pure terrorism committed by elements within the Croat forces, as an attack on the Bosniak population of Stari Vitez - Vitez old town. HVO members tied a Bosniak male civilian from a concentration camp to the steering wheel and set the truck in motion towards the old town.[39]
The Quebec Biker War that lasted from 1994 to 2002 involved the use of car bombings, including one that killed a drug dealer and an 11-year-old boy on 9 August 1995.
Southeast Asia-based militant Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah utilized car bombs in their campaigns during the early 2000s, the most prominent being the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people.
On 11 December 2010, a car bomb exploded in central Stockholm in Sweden, slightly injuring two bystanders. Twelve minutes later, an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen accidentally detonated six pipe bombs he was carrying, but only one exploded.[40] The bomber was killed but there were no other casualties. It is believed that the attacks were the work of homegrown terrorists who were protesting Sweden's involvement in the war in Afghanistan and the publication in Sweden of cartoons depicting Muhammad.
In 2013, Afghan security forces intercepted a truck bomb deployed by the Haqqanis. It was the largest truck bomb ever built, with some 61,500 lbs of explosives.[41][42] It was ultimately defused. The bomb was over 10 times the size of the car bomb used on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. While the bomb was not detonated, it caused security changes throughout the region and the closure of the US Army base FOB Goode near Gardez.[43]
On 30 August 2016, kurdish female soldier from YPJ, Asia Ramazan Antar, was killed in Manbij offensive, when ISIS suicide bombers drove cars filled with explosives towards the Kurdish front.
On 16 October 2017, Maltese journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia died in a car bomb attack.[44]
On 14 November 2021, a car bomb exploded outside of a women's hospital in Liverpool after a man detonated an IED suicide vest inside a taxi, killing him and severely injuring the driver.[45]
In late February 2023, it was reported that the Russian Army attempted to use a MT-LB filled with OFAB-100-120 aerial bombs and mine-clearing charges from the UR-77 vehicle against Ukrainian positions.[48]
On 18 June 2023, the Russian Army was documented as using a T-55 tank filled with approximately 6 tons of high explosives against entrenched Ukrainian Forces near Marinka, Donetsk Oblast with the intent of clearing the trenches.[49][50]
On 10 September 2023, it was reported that Ukraine's 128th Mountain Assault Brigade converted a captured T-62 tank into a VBIED filled with 1.5 tons of explosives and drove it against Russian positions in the Zaporizhzhia region. The tank hit a mine and exploded before it could reach the enemy positions.[51][52]
On 13 July 2024, Thomas Matthew Crooksattempted to assassinateDonald Trump, the former president of the United States, at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks attempt was unsuccessful and he was killed in the process. Following his death, investigators found explosive devices in the trunk of his car, suggesting he planned to set off an explosion remotely as a possible distraction.[53]
Various organizations associated with the Israeli government have been known to use car bombs to kill rivals of the Israeli state, including the IDF and Mossad.
A 2005 car bombing in Iraq, in which a second car bomb was detonated while US forces were investigating the scene of an earlier such blast, resulting in 18 casualties.
The Iraqi insurgency. An estimated 578 car bombs were detonated in Iraq between June 2003 and June 2006. Car bombs continue to be commonly used.[54]
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has employed armored explosive-laden crossovers, full-sized pickup trucks, motorbikes and sport utility vehicles as suicidal tactical units to breach enemy defensive fronts in Syria and Iraq. The use of armored tractors and haul trucks was also recorded over the course of the war.
Americas
Although it has never been officially acknowledged, the American CIA has occasionally been accused of being behind car bombings. One such attack was the failed assassination attempt on Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in the Beirut car bombing on 8 March 1985. Although there has been widespread speculation of CIA involvement, this has never been proven conclusively.
Militants and criminals in India occasionally utilize car bombs in attacks. This includes Muslim, Sikh, Kashmiri and Naxalite militants, as well as rival politicians within the government and organized crime. A notable recent attack was the 25 August 2003 Mumbai bombings, in which two car bombs killed 54 people. The attack was claimed by the Pakistani-backed Kashmiri separatist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Pakistani Taliban have occasionally used car bombs in their ongoing conflict with the government of Pakistan.
^Olson, Dean (2012). Tactical Counterterrorism the Law Enforcement Manual of Terrorism Prevention. Springfield: Charles C Thomas. ISBN9780398087234. p.166
