European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 12, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                              Page 4 stars and stripes Mideast edition april 2qq7 i soldiers find there targets on route predators soldiers in a humvee drive along Highway 5 also known As route predators in new troops say patrolling of Laden stretch of Iraq Highway 5 is nerve racking by Monte Morin stars and stripes Baghdad its a ragged stretch of Road soldiers Call route Preda and for those who drive it on a regular this new Baghdad Boulevard is three Miles of gut clenching littered with mountains of rust ing scrap rubber tires and cinder lock this Section of Iraq Highway 5 carries the dubious reputation of being the most of Laden path in East if not All of or explosively formed Are a particularly deadly Brand of armo piercing Roadside bomb used by shiite Mili Tias like the Mahdi the sex which commanders say Are manufactured in Iran and smuggled into Are the size and shape of Coffee cans but can destroy humvee and Bradley fighting vehicles in a earsplitting when one of those things goes off in your direction it sounds like Wrath of a Soldier yelled As his blacked out humvee hurtled Down the thoroughfare one re cent he and other soldiers Rode with their Mouths open to equalize the pressure on their eardrums should a blast occur and Tensed every muscle As they roared past piles of debris that might conceal the Soldier described the ten Sion this Way its like that feel ing you get when youre Riding a roller you when youre going up and up and up and youre waiting till that moment you come crashing the primary component of the exp is a precision manufactured Copper disc shaped like a dinner when the device the disc forms itself into a fist sized slug that punches photos by Monte and stripes above a spotlight from a Buffalo min Clearing vehicle sweeps Over the Road during a route clearance Mission in new the bars running across the vehicles window Are part of its right John of fort a tank Peers through a Periscope vision Block in an Abrams tank in through the 500pound door of a the bombs have killed at least 172 soldiers nationwide since according to the the Road Falls within the 9 Nis san Security and is the main Supply route for at least two newly established combat out the outposts Are the primary weapon in the newly launched Baghdad Security during the first month and a half of the which started soldiers with the 1st 8th cavalry regi 1st cavalry division enjoyed an unprecedented but when militia Leader Muntada a Sadr renounced his Cau to Lay Down arms several weeks sol Diers Here experienced a Spike in cookies boys Are Back in so weve been getting hit a said 1st Barry of couture humvee was hit by an exp less than two weeks the projectile ripped through the trunk of the Tore off the spare tire and buried itself in a Cement while nobody was the Force of the blast flattened All four tires and cracked two my ears were ringing for two couture about the Only vehicle that sol Diers feel completely Safe in is the 70ton Abrams we can take the hits the other vehicles cant and keep said John of fort said As his Abrams clanked Down the Road the worst exp incident to hit the unit occurred on March when six soldiers were killed by a Roadside bomb ambush on another the like the rest of the were attached to the 2nd brigade combat 2nd infantry it was some Consolation that sol Diers recently captured the men suspected of planting the first Lonnie of a patrol Leader for 2nd company was part of the operation that scooped up the for All their deadly Harper was shocked at the suspects these people Are like Harper we put the flex cuffs and blindfolds on them and they started crying like Damn babies they started telling us the task of Clearing Roadside bombs belongs to the engineers of company on an almost nightly they Roll through the streets of 9 Nissan in a variety of specially min Clearing vehicles searching for Roadside More often than soldiers the explosives find them its a very dangerous i re ally dont like said staff sgt Augusta of were almost guaranteed to find if we dont see it before it theres no telling if its going to cause dam age to hours before Daybreak Satur the platoon sergeant sat in a High wheeled Buffalo a min Clearing vehicle of South african design with a shaped Hull and a Hydraulic unlike Roadside bombs that Are buried deep Fps can be placed very quickly along the Roadside and detonated by a As Luck would have they did not encounter any Roadside bombs that soldiers expressed a mix of Relief and disappointment Over the dry id rather we found some John of then wed know were doing our but commanders said the Engi neers work was deeply appreciated by the i cant say enough about said Jeffrey commander of the 18 everything they find Means a life or Many lives email Monte Morin at