Military of China, force comment.
Military of China, force comment.

ongoing training of Afghan army bomb disposal hand

reporter/Weidong Xu

the battlefield in Afghanistan, NATO forces and Afghan government forces in the hands of the Taliban’s biggest headaches is not the AK-47 rifles and rocket launchers, but the ubiquitous roadside bombs. As the Taliban increasingly intensive study of roadside bombs, the coalition forces bomb disposal experts have been exhausted, under tremendous pressure. Reuters reported June 3, in order to reverse the situation, NATO forces are working to train Afghan army soldiers in a bomb hands, but novice can deal with these strange roadside bomb is still unknown.

Taliban “sly play” hard to except

recently aired a television screen, an Afghan army soldier holding a metal detector carefully searching the roadside “dangerous enemy” – roadside bombs. At this time, he suddenly heard behind instructor snapped, “Do not look around, looking down!” Although this is only a de-mining training, but still revealed a significant tension. The Afghan soldiers were selected to undergo five hours a day of professional mine clearance, bomb disposal training. After two weeks of intensive training, they will go to the battlefield.

in training the Afghan soldiers will be holding a metal detector to find obsolete anti-tank mines carefully modified for the “bomb.” In addition, they may encounter after the pressure cooker packed with explosives attached to wires or mortar, although these bombs looks primitive, but the destruction is very impressive. Taliban militants planted a bomb in very strange ways, in addition to the roadside, trees, walls and other locations, even some of the bodies of dead cats and dead donkeys may also planted a bomb inside. To deal with these strange bombs, even the most experienced bomb disposal experts will feel headache.

foreign instructors also do not trust these novice. Bomb Group of the Canadian training instructor Captain Peter Davidson said, “a roadside bomb outside everywhere … This is a typical cat and mouse.”

recruits battle Shizhuwunai

Currently, NATO forces and Afghan government forces struggling to find a bomb disposal expert, only emergency training Afghan government soldiers to meet their urgent needs. Just last month, said U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George Casey, the battlefield in Afghanistan, will occur within one week than 400 attacks, of which about 60 percent of roadside bomb attacks. In addition, the Pentagon released data show that in April this year, a roadside bomb in Afghanistan ushered in the “high” period, there were 1059 attacks, double the same month last year.

this situation on the NATO forces bomb disposal unit in enormous pressure. For example, in the British, the bomb hands were once described this dangerous work: alive is luck, in the outskirts of the Afghan mission is like playing with their feet to life Competing “Russian roulette.” As overwhelmed, British bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan in charge, the Royal Logistics Corps ammunition technology has recently resigned as director of Bao Bosang.

if NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan, the Afghan government will have to bear alone the huge “roadside bomb pressure”, so a large number of professional training Bomb hands has become a priority. Although these new recruits have a bomb in Afghanistan is not a small improvement, but in order to cope with the adverse complex battlefield environment, they no doubt still a long way.