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Use of 'Sticky IEDs' Rising in Iraq
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Aduan, 30, a driver employed by the Defense Ministry , said he drove cautiously through Baghdad's chaotic, traffic-choked streets Tuesday morning, looking right and left out of fear that someone might slip a magnetic bomb under his car.
He said he pulled into a parking lot at a residential complex across the street from the Foreign Ministry about 11 a.m. and ran into a friend near the parking lot. The two chatted for a few minutes on the sidewalk. The Foreign Ministry is adjacent to the heavily guarded Green Zone.
A tan-colored armored Iraqi army truck was parked in the same lot, a few feet from Aduan's car.
As Aduan prepared to cross the street, he heard a thundering blast and saw a cloud of smoke billow from the army truck.
Saif Mohammed Jasim, 17, who lives in the complex, was sitting on a cooler a few feet from the site of the blast, waiting for a friend.
"I heard an explosion, and I ran to see what was going on," the teenager said. A small piece of shrapnel had burned a quarter-size hole through his gray shorts, leaving a small burn mark near his groin.
About five minutes later, a second, more powerful blast overturned and set aflame Aduan's sedan, startling the crowd that had gathered near the burning armored truck. Aduan, a father of two, stared in disbelief at the burning vehicle.
Iraqi and U.S. soldiers cordoned off the parking lot and spoke to witnesses. American soldiers questioned Aduan, initially suspecting he may have been a culprit, but did not detain him because they determined that the bomb had been attached to the bottom of the vehicle, he said.
A senior Iraqi police official at the scene who declined to be named said the explosives were attached to magnets. Second Lt. Brandon Hardin said U.S. Army explosives experts were still trying to determine whether the devices were indeed magnetic bombs.
As the American soldiers left the parking lot, Aduan spoke hurriedly on his cellphone, holding the car's mangled, charred license plate. He looked pale and spoke in mumbles.
"I'm not very optimistic for my situation," he said. "But I'm still alive."
Special correspondent Qais Mizher contributed to this report.
