Booby Trap

A booby trap is a device or arrangement built to kill, injure, or startle a person or animal, triggered by the victim's own presence or actions and sometimes baited to draw a target in; as a weapon it is indiscriminate, striking whoever springs it. The term's military sense dates to the First World War, though it originally described a schoolboy's prank. Booby traps have been a recurring weapon of irregular warfare since: the Viet Cong built and placed large numbers of improvised traps, including grenades rigged inside huts and on jungle paths, prompting the American sabotage effort Operation Project Eldest Son; republican and loyalist paramilitaries planted an estimated 180 fatal booby-trap bombs against British security forces and civilians during the Troubles in Northern Ireland; and roughly one to two thousand explosive booby traps were laid by Palestinian fighters during the 2002 Battle of Jenin in the Second Intifada.