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A car bomb is an Improvised Explosive Device that is placed in a Car or other Vehicle and then Exploded . It is commonly used as a weapon of Assassination , Terrorism , or Guerrilla Warfare , to kill the occupant(s) of the vehicle and people near the blast site and/or to cause damage to buildings or other property. Car bombs act as their own delivery mechanisms and can carry a relatively large amount of Explosives without attracting suspicion. Truck bombs are also popular, since trucks can crash through barriers more easily and can hold a great deal more explosives. Many types of vehicles have been used, including Motorcycle s, Bicycle s, Tractor shttp://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/04/05/4_iraqi_civilians_hurt_in_suicide_blast_near_abu_ghraib_prison/, shttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64291-2005Apr18.html. The U.S. military and law enforcement agencies often call a car bomb a VBIED, an acronym standing for '''Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device'''. USAGE The earliest car bombs were intended for Assassination . These were often wired to the car's Ignition System , to explode when the car was started. Ignition triggering is now rare, as it is easy to detect and hard to install — interfering with the circuitry is time-consuming and Car Alarm s can be triggered by drains on the car's electrical system. Also, the target can start the car remotely (inadvertently or otherwise), or the target may be a passenger who is a safe distance away when the ignition starts. It is now more common for assassination bombs to be affixed to the underside of the car and then detonated remotely, by the car's motion, or by other means. The bomb is exploded as the target approaches or starts the vehicle or, more commonly, after the vehicle begins to move, when the target is more likely to be inside. For this reason, guards often check the underside of vehicles with a long mirror mounted on a pole. In recent years, car bombs have become widely used by Suicide Bomber s who seek to ram the car into a building and simultaneously detonate it. COUNTERMEASURES Defending against a car bomb involves keeping vehicles at a distance from vulnerable targets, often using Jersey Barrier s, concrete blocks or bollards, and hardening buildings to withstand an explosion. Since the height of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) campaign, the entrance to Downing Street has been closed, preventing the general public from getting near Number 10 . This can be difficult where public roads pass near buildings, and road closures may be the only option in such circumstances (hence, for instance, in Washington, D.C. Pennsylvania Avenue is closed to traffic immediately behind the White House ). HISTORY The origin of the car bomb could be traced back to the one used for the assassination attempt on Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1905 in Constantinople. In the past, groups to use car bombs included:
, made from a number of concealed artillery shells in the back of a pickup truck.]] summary table illustrating the size and range of effectiveness of car bombs by vehicle type used]]
Mass casualty car bombing, and especially suicide car bombing, is currently a predominantly Middle East ern phenomenon. The tactic was widely used in the Lebanese Civil War by the Islamic Fundamentalist group Hezbollah . The most notable car bombing was the 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombing which killed 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French. In the Lebanese Civil War , one estimate says that 3,641 car bombs were detonated.http://www.cornerhouse.org/books/info.aspx?ID=1835&page=0 Groups that still use car bombs include:
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