FOB Kalsu, Iraq - An explosive ordnance disposal team used their detonation skills to cut off a terrorist safe-route in the northern Babil province early this month.

Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division and the 73rd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment launched Operation Cobra Cutter July 8 to eliminate an escape route for terrorists placing roadside bombs on the roads in Haswah.

“We planned to remove the terrorists’ access in and out of the area, but the way we accomplished the mission was rather ironic,” said Capt. Aaron Scheinberg, platoon leader, Company B, 2nd Bn., 8th Inf. Regt., 2nd BCT. “We used the rounds found in weapon caches and would-be bombs to blow up the same routes the terrorists use to hide and emplace these munitions. It was actually poetic justice,” said Scheinberg.

Soldiers escorting and providing security for the EOD team took more than an hour to sweep the area in search of booby traps and command wiring used to detonate explosives.

“The hardest thing about the mission was trying to detect roadside bombs and booby traps. We had to make sure the site was secure before we started pulling perimeter security,” said Staff Sgt. Chris Woodruff, section sergeant, Co. B, 2nd Bn., 8th Inf. Regt., 2nd BCT.

After leaders deemed the area safe, EOD Soldiers began preparing the area for demolition. The Soldiers laid artillery and mortar rounds acquired from terrorist caches in the middle of the pathway, then taped more than 300 pounds of C4 explosives on top of the materials and added extra explosives at the ends of the route to ensure its destruction.

The Soldiers also moved two families living nearby and their animals to safety. With Soldiers and civilians several hundred meters away from the blast site, the EOD team detonated the explosives.

“The explosion was pretty loud. The flames and the smoke looked really cool in the sky. It’s something you don’t normally see in the civilian world,” said Pvt. Chris Peer, tanker, Co. B, 2nd Bn., 8th Inf. Regt., 2nd BCT.

Initially, Soldiers placed barriers around the site to keep out terrorist, but they removed the blockades, said Woodruff. Coalition forces then decided destroying the entire entry and exit points would be the best deterrent against the terrorist threat.

“The barriers we used were being compromised after just a couple of weeks,” said Peer. “It’s going to be much harder for the terrorists to compromise because instead of blocking the route, we destroyed it. They could try to rebuild it, but it is going to take them a long time.”