Wed, Nov 30, 2005
US Air Force F-16s
successfully bombed a booby-trapped house in the vicinity of Al
Mahmudiyah Nov. 23 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Anti-Iraqi forces had attacked Iraqi Army Soldiers with an
improvised explosive device Nov. 21. Coalition ground forces then
secured and searched the area of the attack, discovering the
booby-trapped house, also used as a terrorist hideout.
After an explosive ordnance disposal team investigated the house
and the surrounding area was cleared of civilians, 332nd
Expeditionary Fighter Squadron F-16s from Balad Air Base, Iraq,
dropped 500-pound precision-guided bombs and destroyed the
target.
The precision-guided bombs used, better known as GBU-38s, were
Joint Direct Attack Munitions. JDAMS are especially designed to
reduce collateral damage, limit unintended casualties and take the
fight up close and personal to enemy insurgents. This munition
autonomously navigates to the designated target coordinates, which
can be loaded into the aircraft before takeoff or manually altered
by the aircrew before weapon release.
Since January there have been more than 480 air strikes against
insurgent staging areas, buildings where anti-coalition forces are
hiding, motor-firing sites, improvised explosive device locations
and weapons caches.
More than 15,000 air strike missions have been flown in 2005
providing close-air support for coalition ground forces involved in
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The F-16s involved in this air strike are deployed from the
457th Fighter Squadron, Fort Worth Naval Air Station Joint Reserve
Base, Texas.
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