BAGHDAD: It goes like this: Boy meets girl. They exchange glances and text messages. Then boy asks girl's father for her hand. Dad turns him down. Boy goes to girl's house and plants a bomb out front. Perhaps dad should use my father in law the retired cop's old trick. Be cleaning his guns when Mahmoud comes a'courtin...
The authorities call it a "love IED", or improvised explosive device, and it is not just an isolated case. Captain Nabil Abdul Hussein of the Iraqi national police said that six had exploded in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad alone in the past year.
Love.
Exciting and new...
"These guys, they face any problem with their girlfriends, family, anyone, and they make this kind of IED," Captain Hussein said. There have been no reported deaths or injuries from the devices used in this way, in Dora or elsewhere. "Usually they're putting them in front of the doors of their houses, not to kill, but to scare them," Captain Hussein said.
Hey, pops, it's Mahmoud. Did you get my message?
After six years of war, Iraq is a society with a serious anger management problem. That, along with a lot of men with a lot of experience fashioning bombs and setting ambushes, makes for a lethal mix.
The police say that many of the men are former insurgents who are no longer trying to kill foreign troops but who have an array of bomb-making skills and a stash of TNT. Even without explosives, a popular type of explosive device can be made from common household items including gasoline, a soda can and a plastic water bottle, with the innards of a cellphone as a remote detonator.