Truck bombs

Timothy McVeigh, who built the bomb that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, and the Irish Republican Army both have used ammonium nitrate as the main explosive ingredient in deadly truck bombs. 

Most industry efforts to date have focused on physical site-security measures that are unlikely to stop terrorists armed with airplanes and truck bombs. 

Conventional munitions were also the weapon of choice in 1998, when A1 Qaeda operatives set off truck bombs at two US embassies, in Tanzania and Kenya. Though much smaller in size than the Oklahoma device, these bombs employed higher-energy explosives (TNT). The explosion at Dar Es Salaam killed 11 and wounded 72. The bomb in Nairobi killed 212 and wounded more than 4600. And the weapons in the September 11 attack, although by no means conventional in terms of delivery, were diabolically simple aircraft fully loaded for transcontinental flight with fuel that exploded on impact. 

Why is the common fertilizer ammonium nitrate also the primary component of truck bombs ... 

Bombing of U.S. Marine Barracks, Beirut — On April 18, 1983, a vehicle driven by a member of the Islamic Jihad crashed into the outer wall of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 67 people, 17 of whom comprised the majority of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) staff in Lebanon. In retaliation, the U.S. Navy bombarded terrorist positions designed to aid the Lebanese army in Beirut. In response, on October 23,1983, the Islamic Jihad fitted two trucks with 12,000 pounds of explosives and sent them on a suicide mission. The trucks passed the lax security at the U.S. Marine guardhouse and crashed into a wall of a four-story concrete barrack. All 241 marines and 58 French soldiers inside were killed in the explosion. 

Bombs intended for destruction are usually transported in special trucks, marked "Explosives and "Danger , with no more than two persons riding in the cab. As soon as ail items nave been removed, trucks should be withdrawn to a safe location until destruction is complete. No more than 1001b of bombs or other expl items are allowed to be destroyed at one time. The destruction of bombs larger than 1001b should not be undertaken in the... 

Rockeye. A US Navy general-purpose antiarmor cluster bomb designed for use against heavy tanks, trucks, and flak sites. It weighs 500 lbs and has a mechanical time fuze which dispenses bomblets at a selected time, dispensing them over a wide area... 

Kamikaze car bombs generally carry the equivalent of 2,000 pounds of TNT, but the truck detonated at the marine headquarters had the blast equivalent of 12,000 pounds of TNT. This proves that the explosion w a FAE-enhanccd because the truck was incapable of carrying a 6-ton load By way of contrast, most of the unoccupied car bombs left around Beirut contain from 200 to 500 pounds of explosive. 

The United States has a very long coastline which will make it possible to smuggle in such bombs in peacetime and to carry them by truck into our cities. The long coastline, the structure of our society, and our very heterogeneous population may make an effective control of such "traffic" virtually impossible.. .. So far it has not been possible to devise any methods which would enable us to detect hidden atomic bombs buried in the ground or otherwise efficiently protected against detection. ... 

For transponation underground the Air Ministry preferred Ransome-Rapier electric tractors, similar to those used to move heavy shells at Tunnel Quarry, in combination with castor-steering dual-purpose trucks suitable for use on both smooth surfaces and narrow-gauge tracks. Trucks full of bombs were lowered down the No.2 slope shaft by an electric winch in trains of three to be picked up at the bottom by the electric traaors. 

Firefighting should be accomplished with remote appliances such as the water cannon (also called deck gun) of the fire truck. If there are no fires to fight, the fire service should remain out of the blast zone. Treat all explosions as a criminal act until proven otherwise. All bomb scenes are crime scenes and should be treated as such (see Chapter 1). 

April 19, 1995 An explosion rips through the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It completely tears off the north wall and leaves 168 dead, including 19 children. The terrorists had purchased ammonium nitrate from a farm cooperative and nitro-methane racing fuel at a racetrack for materials to construct the bomb. It was rigged in a rental truck and parked in front of the building. A detonation-delay mechanism allowed the bomber to escape prior to the explosion. This was the most lethal terrorist attack to ever occur in the United States. 

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