Cheap and deadly, homemade bombs plague Afghan roads

KANDAHAR (Reuters) - The signature weapon of the Iraq war has established itself as the Taliban's weapon of choice in Afghanistan as well, where roadside bombs have proven to be rudimentary and cheap -- but deadly as ever.

The use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has soared in Afghanistan since 2007 and numbers are expected to spike further as an offensive in Kandahar takes off, said the commander of one of two southern battalions that clear them from roads.

Apart from being the biggest killer of NATO troops in Afghanistan, roadside bombs also put soldiers on the defensive, making them wary of leaving their armoured vehicles -- striking at the heart of U.S. efforts to meet locals and win their trust.

Unlike the sophisticated devices conjured by Iraqi bombmakers with access to a large supply of ammunition, IEDs in Afghanistan are rudimentary -- often just a yellow pine oil jug or pressure cooker packed with fertilizer or a homemade device crafted out of wood and batteries, stuck into a culvert in the road.

"I was surprised at how rudimentary the devices here are, but very effective," Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak, commander of Taskforce Lumberjack, which operates slow-moving convoys of heavily armoured vehicles to spot and remove IEDs. "In terms of making do with what they have available, they do a very good job."

As the U.S. military boosts the number of troops in southern Afghanistan -- a region that accounts for two-thirds of all IEDs encountered in the country -- the number of roadside bombs is also rising.

In February, 290 IEDs were detonated in parts of Helmand and Kandahar provinces where a U.S. Stryker brigade patrols, tripling from 92 in February last year.

The number of IEDs found nearly quadrupled to 567 from 157 in the same period. And all that is before the traditional summer fighting season gets underway.

Typically the bombs are 40-50 pounds in size, with pressure plates that set them off when a vehicle or person steps on them, Andrysiak said.

SMART ENOUGH TO ADAPT

On a sunny morning at Kandahar airfield, a group of Andrysiak's men rolled out of the base in an impressive convoy of eight mammoth tan vehicles, each outfitted with sophisticated tools, from mine detectors to giant cameras to identify IEDs.

But the simplicity of the devices buried away by insurgents only complicates their task further.

"If you've got a device made of wood and batteries, what's your sensor going to pick up -- a piece of wood lying in the road?" Andrysiak said.

Outfoxing the Taliban appears to be even harder -- the insurgents have shown they are capable of quickly adapting to whatever the troops come up with to thwart IEDs.

"It constantly evolves," he said. "However you adapt, he's smart enough to find different ways of defeating you."

For example, initially insurgents would place IEDs in culverts by the road. They began burying them nearby when U.S. troops started sealing off culverts.

Once U.S. troops discovered that pattern, insurgents began placing IEDs on the side of roads where soldiers would veer off to investigate a suspicious object.

Recently a route clearance unit stumbled upon a "hoax IED" - something that looked like a roadside bomb but was not, which the soldiers suspected was deliberately laid there to watch the U.S. response.

"They wanted to study how we were going to deal with it," said Lt. Ashton Herbert, the platoon leader.

Andrysiak is pushing his men to avoid falling into a pattern that sets them up as an easy target for the Taliban.

He wants them to notice subtle changes during patrols, and to bring back IEDs to the base for examination, in the hopes of finding fingerprints or other telltale signs that can identify the bombmaker.

"I'm pushing my men to paint the picture of the guy on the ground," he said.

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