Roadside Bombs Insurgents' Weapon of Choice
HARRIS: You know, deadly insurgent attacks occur so frequently, they're almost part of a daily fabric. A massive suicide car bombing south of Baghdad today is just the latest example. At least 20 people are dead, including women and children. And 60 others wounded. It happened outside a mosque as people were preparing to end the day's Ramadan fasting. In another attack, at least two Iraqi civilians died in a car bombing in the northeastern city of Kirkuk. Seven people were wounded. The blast also happened near a Shiite mosque. In combat operations in Iraq, two Marine pilots were killed today when their Cobra helicopter gun ship crashed west of Baghdad. Marine officials don't know what caused the crash. It happened as the chopper was flying in support of security operations outside of the city of Ramadi. Shortly afterwards, a Marine fighter bombed what the Marines say was an insurgent command center near the crash site. A Marine spokesman says the air strike was related to the chopper crash. The military also is reporting the deaths of two more Americans in Ramadi. A Marine and a sailor died yesterday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. An Iraqi police officer says insurgents used guns, rockets and roadside bombs to attack Marine patrols. The deaths of the Marine and the sailor and the two Marines killed in the chopper crash today raises the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the war started to 2,031.</s>KAGAN: Roadside bombs are the weapons of choice for Iraqi insurgents, often very effective. U.S. officials say these weapons are more and more sophisticated and more deadly. Our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr has that story.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Senior U.S. military commanders confirmed to CNN that a new generation of sophisticated roadside and suicide bombs has appeared in southern Iraq in recent weeks. These bombs, although small in number, are causing great concern. They have explosive charges that can penetrate armored vehicles, including the up-armored Humvees on which the U.S. Army has spent billions of dollars. In a closed-door congressional briefing, senators were told the powerful new bombs can be made with materials bought off the Internet. And that insurgents are also getting outside help, possibly from Iran and Syria. After that hearing, the head of the military's task force talked about the insurgents.</s>BRIG. GEN. JOSEPH VOTEL, IED TASK FORCE DIRECTOR: He's varying the methods that he's using to initiate them. He's varied the employment techniques that he's employing them with. And he started to bury the targets that he's going after.</s>STARR: The number of attacks by improvised explosive devices, IEDs, has risen. But officials say the attacks are less effective.</s>GEN. PETER PACE, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: And the numbers of casualties per effective attack has gone down. That said, there are more overall IED attacks by the insurgents.</s>STARR: In October, there were about 100 attacks per day, compared to 85 to 90 attacks a day in September. About half of all attacks are IEDs. EA-6B aircraft have now been outfitted with an onboard electronic jammer to stop some types of IEd detonation. Thousands of jammers on vehicles have also been sent to Iraq. The Army's chief of planning offered remarkable candor about just how worried military leaders now are about declining public support for the war.</s>LT. GEN. JAMES LOVELACE, ARMY DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: I think that's something that we think about all the time. But as you share, as the polls start to reflect, this is something that we do concern ourselves with. It's probably a little bit more prevalent.</s>STARR (on camera): Officials believe the October rise in attacks is related mainly to insurgents trying to derail the referendum. But these same officials are already privately acknowledging that they expect to maintain high troop levels in Iraq through the December elections. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.</s>HARRIS: She proved to America that one person can make a difference, and right now people are honoring civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks at her funeral. We're bringing you live coverage of that throughout the hour. A live picture now. Stay with us.</s>SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange, where stocks are higher and so are prices for prescription drugs. I'll have details of a new study coming up. CNN's LIVE FROM will be right back.