Air Force fighters destroy terrorist hideout Published Nov. 28, 2005 SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- U.S. Air Force F-16s successfully bombed a booby-trapped house in the vicinity of Al Mahmudiyah Nov. 23 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Anti-Iraqi forces had attacked Iraqi Army Soldiers with an improvised explosive device Nov. 21. Coalition ground forces then secured and searched the area of the attack, discovering the booby-trapped house, also used as a terrorist hideout. After an explosive ordnance disposal team investigated the house and the surrounding area was cleared of civilians, 332nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron F-16s from Balad Air Base, Iraq, dropped 500-pound precision-guided bombs and destroyed the target. The precision-guided bombs used, better known as GBU-38s, were Joint Direct Attack Munitions. JDAMS are especially designed to reduce collateral damage, limit unintended casualties and take the fight up close and personal to enemy insurgents. This munition autonomously navigates to the designated target coordinates, which can be loaded into the aircraft before takeoff or manually altered by the aircrew before weapon release. Since January there have been more than 480 air strikes against insurgent staging areas, buildings where anti-coalition forces are hiding, motor-firing sites, improvised explosive device locations and weapons caches. More than 15,000 air strike missions have been flown in 2005 providing close-air support for coalition ground forces involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The F-16s involved in this air strike are deployed from the 457th Fighter Squadron, Fort Worth Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, Texas.