Interesting Terminology

Check out the brief news reports at the Spokesman Review, KXLY, etc., concerning an explosive device found outside the Thomas S. Foley Courthouse.

From the Review:

Federal authorities are investigating the discovery 10 days ago of an improvised explosive device found next to the Thomas S. Foley U.S. Courthouse in downtown Spokane but had not alerted the public until today based upon a direct inquiry by The Spokesman-Review.

I'm curious about the use of the phrase "improvised explosive device" in this report. The context of IEDs has always been in terms of explosive devices used in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were artillery shells wired to cell phones and buried in a roadway or something along those lines. Until reading the Wikipedia article, I've never heard that term used for home made bombs.

In the past, explosive devices were referred to as homemade bombs or pipe bombs. Of course, I have no idea if this was the terminology used by the authorities or by the media. The authorities are being tight-lipped about it, but if they used "IED", I wonder if anyone in the media asked
why. So many questions....

*** Update ***

The article in today's Spokesman Review uses "bomb" instead of "improvised explosive device", but that term is a tag for the article.