Improvised Explosive Device

This is a Talkabout two-way radio, a cheap walkie-talkie, rigged to act as a transmitter to detonate an IED buried in a road in Mosul. Using this, a dopey insurgent tried to kill the troops with which Michael Yon was riding. The dope panicked and blew his attack. The good guys caught the bad guy, and Yon gives his account of it:

"LTC Kurilla didn't want to leave the bombs buried in the road, so he pulled the Strykers further back, and tried to use the terrorist's radio control to detonate them. He dropped down inside the hatch and asked the terrorist how to use the transmitter. In the most shocking admission of guilt imaginable, the terrorist walked the Commander through the steps: 1) Re-install the AA batteries in the back, 2) Connect the 9-volt battery on the side. 3) Flip the black switch on the side. 4) Press #1 on the weird keypad. 5) Press #7. When you press 7, the bomb explodes."

The fearsome wannabe murdering insurgent lived with his mommy. Evidently, all the lefty claptrap about Abu Ghraib being a torture den hasn't made much impression on the Iraqi insurgents. They know better from experience.

"After ordering that the street be made "black," meaning closed to traffic, Kurilla then asked the terrorist where he lived. Without hesitation, he told us. Some soldiers stayed to watch the IED area while we drove to and raided the man’s house.

He lived with his mother. She was the only one home when we arrived. It was as if she knew we were coming. Many people saw us capture him; someone must have called on a cell phone to warn her that trouble was brewing. We searched every where.

She smiled the whole time, as if to say, That’s my boy! The translator heard her say to her son, “Don’t worry. You will be released soon.” She smiled at me.

The most serious terrorists do not fear prison here. Captain Jeff VanAntwerp, who commands Alpha Company, recently told me that Iraqis joke among themselves that they would pay 5,000 Dinar per night to stay at Abu Ghraib prison. It's air conditioned, the showers are good, the food is good, and the water is good. The mother seemed to know this and it curled in contempt behind her smile."