By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
EXPERT bomb-makers in Helmand, Afghanistan’s most violent province, are pioneering new types of “invisible” devices, made with carbon rods and glass, instead of metal pressure plates and nails.
Britain’s most senior bomb-disposal officer in Afghanistan has warned that insurgents have started manufacturing “low-metal” devices and placing them more “cleverly” this summer. The Taleban’s latest tactics mean it is almost impossible to spot the improvised explosives devices (IEDs) using British military metal detectors.
Twenty-two British soldiers were killed in July – the highest monthly toll since operations began in 2001. Nineteen of those soldiers died in Taleban blasts.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said 57 soldiers were injured in the first fortnight of last month, as bombs went off almost every day.
“They are very skilful,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Duncan, Chief of Staff of Nato’s counter-IED branch.
“Where before they were going for single targets, now they are putting them out in multiples and they are being clever. They will put out ‘obvious’ IEDs and then lots of less obvious secondary devices close by, to catch the first responders.”
A spokesman for the US-led IED Defeat Organisation, based in Washington DC, said more than 20 bombs had been found at a single location.
