Ridding Iraq of Live Munitions.

1. Undeniable Liberal
   February 14th, 2007 at 5:54 pm

   Nice.....I am linking to this. Not just nice, a great post, thanks.

2. Jason
   February 14th, 2007 at 6:10 pm

   Anybody have a pool on when the "hitting shells with sledgehammers" guy achieves eternity?

3. aj
   February 15th, 2007 at 1:12 am

   There was a case of precisely this killing someone in the Darwin awards recently (last couple of years). The victim was dismantling shells to sell the metal as scraps. Kinda sucks that people have to make a living smacking munititions with a hammer.

4. Jimbo
   February 15th, 2007 at 6:38 am

   Dud...Dud....Dud....BOOM

5. Daood
   February 15th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

   These are warheads....no propellant in them....my guess is that this was the last photo of Ali Baba....

6. NeonCat
   February 15th, 2007 at 5:03 pm

   You can use C4 as a fuel. It is not recommended and gives off toxic and, as I understand it, psychoactive fumes, but you can burn it. However, I would be willing to guess that most of the unexploded ordnance in Iraq is being given back to the US in the form of IEDs, no matter what Iran may or may not be suppling. It was true in Vietnam, it is true in Afghanistan and Iraq: we provide most of the materiel for the insurgents.

7. Jimbo
   February 16th, 2007 at 10:15 am

   Good point NeonCat, but dropping Nerf Bombs wasn't working very well.

8. Aramax
   February 16th, 2007 at 9:25 pm

   Why dont they just take the artillery shells and drop them from a high ground or something.

   Why do they need to smash the thing with a sledgehammer like in the cartoons?

9. jonathan olley
   October 5th, 2009 at 6:59 am

   I am the photographer who made this image of the Iraqi with the sledge-hammer.

   The caption is misleading; Known colloquially as "ali-babas", from the forty thieves fame, this man was demolishing the building behind for the reinforcing steel bars inside the concrete roof and the collected bricks which he could sell. The shells have had their driving-bands removed, as they are made of copper and copper was fetching a high price in Iran at that time. A most dangerous thing to do with a dolly-hammer and cold-chisel. Most of these shells, South African made 152mm High-Explosive extended-range artillery shells & U.S. made 155mm High Explosive artillery shells, are live but without fuses and therefore relatively 'safe'. I did see some local people cooking on TNT, not to be recommended, it can go bang and of course burns very hot and with toxic fumes. The TNT for cooking had come from 'liberated' anti-tank mines, infinitely easier to prise out the explosive from. Sadly many of these shells in the photograph would have been taken by insurgents for use in IED's. That is what we get for invading a large, militarised country and not having much of a plan as to what to do afterwards. Pathetic really. You could spend a year banging one of these shells with a sledge-hammer and I guarantee that you would not split it open that way. On the other hand you might strike the shell in just the right way on the first strike and you'd be nothing more than a red-mist and a memory! I would not do it!

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