Coalition deaths from IED attacks soar in Afghanistan
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
03/08/2009
WASHINGTON — Makeshift bomb attacks in Afghanistan killed three times as many coalition troops in the first two months of 2009 compared with the same period last year. The increase points to a strengthening insurgency and potentially more violence as warmer weather arrives along with intensified fighting.
The bombs, called improvised explosive devices, killed 32 coalition troops in January and February, compared with 10 during the same period in 2008. During the same time, 96 troops were wounded, a 146% increase from the 39 early last year, according to data from the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. The numbers are final for January and preliminary for February.
Militants also appear to be using more sophisticated and powerful bombs, accounting for greater casualties, said Charles McMinn, deputy research manager for HMS, a counter-IED consulting firm that provides information to the Pentagon. Last week, a roadside bomb killed three Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan.
“It’s a reflection of the increased activity of the Taliban,” Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island and a member of the Armed Services Committee, said of the militants who ruled Afghanistan and harbored al-Qaeda until ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001. “They’re adopting the tactics used by insurgents in Iraq.”
The increase in IED attacks for January and February could foreshadow a violent spring and summer as 17,000 more U.S. troops arrive in Afghanistan to bolster the force of 38,000 there now. There are also about 30,000 troops from allied nations in Afghanistan and about 79,000 Afghan soldiers.
Last year, 3,276 IEDs detonated or were detected before blowing up in Afghanistan, a 45% increase over 2007, and a record for the war.
“Spring does generally bring a spike of activity,” McMinn said. “They had an eventful winter. I’d expect an even more eventful summer.”
Insurgents, who in the past have fled to havens in neighboring Pakistan in the winter, now appear to have stocks of explosives and other supplies in Afghanistan and have stayed to fight, McMinn said.
IEDs are the top killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Since the war began, 589 U.S. servicemembers have been killed there, 434 of them in combat. More than 2,700 have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.
Col. Greg Julian, the top U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said insurgents resort to IEDs because they get “decimated” in conventional battles with coalition troops.
Efforts to establish security in areas held by the Taliban and other insurgent groups have resulted in an increase in attacks, Julian said.
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