Update July 12th The commentator Trazzer has made a very strong argument for the items shown below being standard shaped charged rather than EFPs in the comments below this article, worth checking them out.



Stratfor recently reported on claims by the Hawks Brigade of the Levant that they are now using a type of IED known as an explosively formed penetrator ( EFP ). EFPs have a long history of use in a number of conflicts, and most recently have been used in Iraq to attack coaltion armoured vehicles.

An EFP consists of a copper tube filled with explosives, with a concave copper liner over the end of the pipe, faced towards the target. The copper tube prevents fragmentation during the explosion, and the concave copper liner focuses the blast in such a way to penetrate the armour of the target. The below picture shows an example from Iraq:





The below diagram and animation shows how the copper liner turns into a projectile that can penetrate armour:

The following video from Deir ez-Zor in the east of Syria, near Iraq, shows EFPs now being used to construct IEDs, and is the first video evidence confirming their use in Syria:

It does seem likely that the FSA have acquired the skills to build these IEDs from insurgents in Iraq, and it confirms that Assad’s armoured vehicles are at least as vulnerable to IEDs in their outdated Russian armoured vehicles as US forces are in their more sophisticated armoured vehicles in Iraq. Update July 4th This video has been posted which shows how bombs can be created from artillery shells At 2:50 he takes out what appears to be an IED with a inverted cone liner. @alhazrid informs me the man in the video describes the IED as directed, and it has a cone, but doesn't mention what it's made from. Another interesting point for fans of irony, both the US and UK accused the Iranian government of providing Iraqi insurgents with the information and equipment required to build shaped charges as described above, so if true it would be rather ironic if that information has gone from Iraq to Syria so the FSA can fight Iran's close ally.