Afghan IEDs show chilling improvements, data analysis says

By William Welsh

 

By using how-to manuals and an extensive video catalog of attacks readily available on the Internet, Taliban insurgents operating in southern Afghanistan are able to make swift adjustments to the trigger methods they use in attacks on U.S. and coalition forces with improvised explosive devices, reports Greg Grant at DOD Buzz. 

Western military observers discussed the sharp rise in IED attacks in southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, and presented an impressive collection of data on the attacks at a New America Foundation event in Washington on April 12. 

Refining its techniques over the years in Iraq, the IED bomber guild has grown in size and skill, and compressed its training cycle. The rapid pace of innovation in consumer electronics, which are used in most triggering devices, has enabled bombers to switch from one triggering method to another as soon as the countermeasures show up in the field. 

The IED bazaar is found on the Internet, said Montgomery Meigs, a retired Army general and former commander of the Defense Department’s counter-IED task force, who spoke at the event. 

Data mapping has revealed a deadly IED highway running between Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and Quetta in western Pakistan. Most Taliban IEDs are detonated by remote radio frequency devices, despite the heavy use of radio frequency jammers there. Some have progressed to using low-metal switches that are difficult to detect with mine detectors.

Nearly 80 percent of all casualties in southern Afghanistan are caused by IEDs. The attacks are deadlier in Afghanistan than Iraq because more patrols are conducted on foot and troops often don’t have the protection of heavily armored mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles. 

The solution to IED attacks is not more spending on new technologies but better human intelligence on the bomber networks, finding a human solution to a human problem, said national security analyst Alec Barker at the event. Meigs disagreed somewhat, saying that investment in new high-tech sensors that could spot IEDs have great aided troops in the field.