by Richard Sisk
The roadside bomb that killed a U.S. soldier and wounded a second in Iraq last week was a type of improvised explosive device considered the deadliest used against U.S. forces in the long conflict, a top U.S. general said Thursday.
The device that hit the vehicle carrying the two soldiers on Oct. 1 in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad was an EFP, or explosively formed penetrator, said Army Maj. Gen. Robert White, commander of Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command-Operation Inherent Resolve.
In a video briefing from Baghdad to the Pentagon, White said the EFP "has been used over the last 15 years or so in Iraq and other places in the world. It is being employed in Syria right now. It is a dangerous, dangerous battlefield out there."
A U.S. investigation of the Oct. 1 attack determined that the device used was an EFP, White said, and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has now ordered a second investigation to find the perpetrators.
The attack occurred along a stretch of road called Route Tampa by U.S forces and was a "classic ambush" at a "turn in the road, a dip in the road, causing the vehicle to slow down," White said.
Spc. Alexander W. Missildine, 20, of Tyler, Texas, was killed in the attack. He was assigned to the 710th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), out of Fort Polk, Louisiana.
"It was a tragic event. Specialist Missildine was a key component and a part of our coalition," White said, "and our prayers go out to his family. Again, it was tragic."
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/10/13/deadliest-ied-back-iraq-battlefield.html
