Word: shrapnel
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...smart weapons have turned out to be messier than advertised. A 2,000-lb. bomb steered by a JDAM guidance device may rarely miss its mark by more than 13 ft.--the length of the steering system and the explosive--but when the bomb blows, it sends high-speed shrapnel flying as far as a mile. There may be a lot of uncounted innocents in such a big footprint...
...samba in McCoy's head is overtaken by a different beat--the whump of an artillery round. Suddenly, the courtyard where the infantrymen have assembled to make the charge across the bridge is black with raining oil and shrapnel and smoke. Marines are shouting, hitting the ground, running for cover. The round has slammed into an amphibious assault vehicle just five feet away from me, landing between the gunner's turret and the driver's hatch. Marines pull injured buddies away from the smoking wreck. Blood mixes with oil on the vehicle's metal ramp. They cover bodies...
...second roared intermittently for 15 more minutes. By this point, Mohammed, having convinced a local man to guide him to the explosions by a safer route than mine, had arrived at the church compound by the alleyway. We backed away along the lane, keeping an eye out for shrapnel. Where the alley met the main road, we turned out of sight of the explosions...
...returned several hours later, Al-Ghadeer had reverted to its true self, a sleepy middle-class residential neighborhood in the western outskirts of the Iraqi capital. Blackened holes in the ground were all that remained of the two caches. The local kids had gathered up most of the shrapnel and were now playing soccer in the compound. The residents of the houses closest to the explosions were out in the alley, chatting with neighbors...
...Naturally, the explosions were the only topic of conversation that afternoon. Badriah Mohammed, 45, said most folks were relieved that the flying shrapnel hadn't hurt anybody. The only physical damage was to some windows. "But in our minds, we know it could have been worse," she said. "And we know it can easily happen again...