More Afghans killed by IEDs in 2010

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Lt. Gen. Michael Oates, who heads the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, pointed to the increasing use of bombs by insurgents to target civilians specifically. These bombs can be detonated from a distance by a wire or radio signal or by a suicide bomber.


More Afghans killed by IEDs in 2010
By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Aug 5, 2010 8:50:24 EDT

WASHINGTON — Bombs planted by insurgents have killed 75 percent more Afghan civilians this year than in 2009 as the Taliban increasingly target villagers in a campaign of intimidation, according to military reports provided to USA Today.

There have been 1,859 civilian deaths from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) so far this year across Afghanistan. That compares with 1,057 in the same period last year. In the Taliban stronghold of southern Afghanistan, where thousands of U.S. forces have been brought in to protect Afghans, civilian deaths from roadside bombs have soared 132 percent since last year, the reports show.

Makeshift bombs are the top killer of the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan civilians. Insurgents most often rely on cheap materials — fertilizer and fuel oil — to fashion explosives.

"It is used principally to coerce the population from cooperating with the Afghan government and ... the coalition force," said Lt. Gen. Michael Oates, who heads the Joint Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Defeat Organization, the Pentagon's lead agency for combating makeshift bombs.

Oates pointed to the increasing use of bombs by insurgents to target civilians specifically. These bombs can be detonated from a distance by a wire or radio signal or by a suicide bomber.