Army NCO destroys IEDs in Afghanistan

[longknife]

by Army Staff Sgt. Nicolas Morales
11/11/2012 06:24 PM

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan (Oct. 30, 2012) — Deployed Army Sgt. Bradley Toman looks back at the last 12 years of his military career with fond memories and as an encouraging way ahead for his family and soldiers.

Toman, a native of Davison, Mich., enlisted in the Army in 1998 as a carpenter and mason. He recalled that he was in Washington, D.C., during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

He recalls the event as if it were yesterday.

Read more @ Army NCO destroys IEDs in Afghanistan | Conservative News, Views & Books

 

[waltky]

Oops! IED Goes Off In Al Qaeda Hideout, 15 Dead...

Al-Qaeda explosion kills 15 suspected Yemeni terrorists
January 21, 2013 - A large-scale explosion in Yemen's Bayda province is believed to have killed at least 15 suspected al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) members on Sunday, according to a former U.S. law enforcement commander now serving as an official in Israel.

The official says an IED (improvised explosive device) detonated in a dwelling owned by a suspected al-Qaeda cell leader, Ahmed Deif-Allah Al-Zahab. The deadly explosion is believed to have been an accident that occurred as the terrorists were preparing the device for an attack.

When Yemeni civilians attempted to help the occupants of the devastated building, they were barred from approaching the scene of the incident by armed gunman linked to AQAP, the official said. AQAP continues to be a threat in Yemen and the terrorist group has launched deadly attacks against the military since was pushed out of cities and towns it controlled in late 2011.

The Somali group known as al-Shabaab has provided weapons, fighters and training with explosives over the last few months to the Yemen-based al-Qaeda branch that has been battling with the Yemeni police and army forces in Abyan since May 2011, according to officials such as Congressman Pete King (R-NY).

The country's interior ministry reported earlier this month that al-Shabaab had sent 300 armed men to fight alongside the Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing known locally as Partisans of Sharia ( Islamic law) in Abyan province. The group is also known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In January 2009, al-Qaeda affiliates in Saudi Arabia and Yemen officially merged and formed Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as reported in the Examiner.

Source

 

[waltky]

Jihadi land mines a deadly problem for Afghanis...

IEDs: A Daily Nightmare for Afghans
September 15, 2015 - Mohammad Nasir Atmar was at home one day in August when he heard a huge explosion and saw plumes of black smoke outside his window in the Macroryan area of Kabul city. It was a moment of terror.

"I went down to see if any help was needed at the scene," he said, "as there were a lot of civilian casualties.” The attack happened in a residential area built by the Soviets, killing 12 people and injuring 66 others. It was carried out by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, a type of IED that is used by insurgents to target the Afghan National Security Forces and their NATO counterparts but often affects innocent civilians. Ordinary Afghans are bearing most of the brunt of the current conflict, which is in its 15th year.

Nicholas Haysom, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative and head of the U.N.'s assistance mission in Afghanistan, said in a report in August that Afghans had suffered a lot and that it was time for the violence to end. “Afghan civilians have suffered far too long from this destructive conflict," he said. "The devastating consequences of this violence against civilians as documented in this report should serve to strengthen the broad conviction that peace is urgently needed.”

An Afghan Army soldier searches for land mines with a metal detector during an exercise on defusing improvised explosive devices in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Development deterred

The Taliban are active across Afghanistan but are most visible in the country’s south and east. Local and international organizations are reluctant to implement development projects in areas where the Taliban have a powerful presence, fearing attacks and roadside bombs. Shahab Hakimi, director of the nongovernmental Mine Detection Dog Center in Afghanistan, said IEDs are a hurdle for development in in the country. Last Thursday, he said, "two engineers who wanted to go and help build a clinic in Charkh district of Maidan Wardak province drove over an IED and died. The project was postponed after the incident.”

A resident of the Shajoy district of Zabul province who did not want to be named for security reasons told VOA that a lot of bridges have been blown up on the Kabul-Kandahar highway by the insurgents and that noncombatants suffer as a result, especially during the flooding season. According to the U.N. report released last month, in the first half of this year alone, more than 4,900 civilian casualties have been documented — nearly 1,600 deaths and about 3,300 wounded. Nearly the same number of people were also killed and injured during the same period in 2014. According to the report, IEDs contribute to 90 percent of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

Blind weapons

 

[longknife]

There are landmines and ieds all over the Middle East that are killing humans and livestock at an alarming level.

Princess Diana was a huge patron of trying to find and disarm them.