ABSTRACT
It was around 1730 on 10 September 2011 when the suicide bomber plowed his truck into the outer perimeter of US Combat Outpost (COP) Sayed Abad in the Afghan province of Wardak. Fortunately for those US Marines and soldiers inside the COP, the HESCO barriers absorbed much of the blast; nonetheless, 77 Marines were injured. Unfortunately for Afghan civilians, though, the bomb killed five, including a woman hit by shrapnel half a mile away. A huge pillar of smoke rose above the COP as helicopters scrambled to evacuate the wounded. 1
