command wire
n.— «Specialist Sandoval, 22, from First Battalion, 501st Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska, was convicted of planting a coil of copper wire on the body of the man he killed near Iskandariya, a hostile Sunni Arab region south of Baghdad, on April 27 during an operation to locate and destroy an insurgent mortar team. The copper roll, what soldiers call “command wire,” is commonly used by insurgents to make or detonate roadside bombs, the leading killer of American service members in Iraq.» —“U.S. Soldier Acquitted of Murder in Iraq” by Paul von Zielbauer in Camp Liberty, Iraq New York Times Sept. 29, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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