AFGHANISTAN. Mian Poshteh, Helmand. 2009. Marines on patrol minutes before an IED was triggered. Although the patrol had cautiously swept
the road with metal detectors, they’d failed to find the device. Many of the improvised bombs
in Afghanistan contained no metal. They were made of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, both
impossible to detect. Sometimes insurgents would bury screws and other small piece of metal
to confuse and exhaust the advancing Marines, while masking the true location of the bombs.