An improvised explosive device (IED) from FOB Shank in Afghanistan’s Logar province, which was used as a training aid. These homemade charges were one of the most serious threats to Allied soldiers and the local civilian population in Afghanistan. IEDs can be used in many ways and have many forms. This flexibility makes them a hardly predictable and above all insidious means of combat with often tragic consequences. These explosives are placed in close proximity to roads, in moving or parked vehicles, in buildings and in the explosive vests of suicide bombers. IEDs are often used in combined complex attacks on the strong points of Allied forces.