Remote-Control Explosions Pose Threat in Afghanistan

By CARLOTTA GALL

GARDEZ, Afghanistan - In late June, just two weeks into his tour here, Pvt. Jeremy Kretz from Dubuque, Iowa, was driving in a convoy near the border with Pakistan when a remote-controlled explosion hit his Humvee, causing him to black out and blasting him and his companions with rocks and dust. The American soldiers got away with concussions, ruptured eardrums and gravel-peppered skin.

"Head’s pretty full of gravel anyway," joked his commander, Lt. James Avrams, who is in charge of the protection force at Gardez, raising a laugh among his men, all from the 34th Infantry Division, Iowa National Guard.

But for the American military, and foreign and Afghan officials, remote-controlled explosions have become the biggest threat in Afghanistan. Although they are not being used on nearly the scale found in Iraq, they are becoming more common and increasingly sophisticated, military and other officials said in interviews.

That point was driven home over the weekend of Aug. 7, when two American soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were killed, and three more men were wounded, south of here by a powerful explosion that tossed their Humvee over and over in the air. The explosion was not only set off by remote control, probably with a radio set, but also was a "daisy chain" explosion, with explosives laid along the road and linked, to ensure a lethal blow.

Twelve election workers have been killed in explosions over the last few months as they have registered voters nationwide. Thirty-one American soldiers have been killed - 23 of them in combat - this year, most of them in roadside explosions or ambushes, a sharp increase over the same period last year. In the first week of August, the Gardez team recorded an incident every day, whether a clash with fighters suspected of being members of the Taliban or Al Qaeda, or explosions aimed at American forces or supply trucks, Lt. Evan McCrann said.

Lieutenant Avrams said, "We are expecting it to get worse."

In the period leading to Afghanistan’s presidential elections, which are scheduled for Oct. 9, in which President Hamid Karzai is facing 22 challengers, United States troops have been ordered to make the election process, and security for the elections, their priority. It will be a combined effort, with American conventional and Special Forces going after insurgents, often with help from the newly trained Afghan National Army. Civil affairs teams will travel the regions to extend the government’s reach and deliver assistance, and the Afghan police will provide security for election officials and voting sites.

The American-led coalition forces now number about 20,000, and are spread across the troubled southern and eastern parts of the country. They will provide the backbone of the security effort, even if the Afghan services appear in the forefront.

The "bad guys," as the soldiers call the suspected Taliban and foreign Al Qaeda fighters along with other groups opposed to the American presence in Afghanistan and to the American-backed election process, remain active along the eastern border with Pakistan, and across southern Afghanistan. United States marines and Special Forces have been brought into specific areas on request to tackle known troublemakers or groups of insurgents.

Civil affairs teams, based in provincial centers, have their own protection units, which also conduct regular patrols and security operations. For one such team in Gardez, the threat of improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s as they are known, is one of the most difficult to combat.

"They tell us to watch out for stacks of rocks, but there’s stacks of rocks everywhere here," said Jon, a sergeant who spoke on the condition that his surname not be published. Specialist Leo Pins added: "Or watch for wires, but when you are rolling down the road with lots of dust, you don’t see much. You drive down and pray."

And Specialist Toby Handy said, "Just hope you don’t go boom."

The sergeant added: "It’s also frustrating. It’s hard to find the guys trying to do the things against us."

The danger and fear are even greater for government and election officials and aid workers, who do not have the protection of armored vehicles or body armor but have increasingly been the targets of attacks this year. The attacks that have been most shocking to people here have been an explosion in a mosque in Ghazni, where voters were registering, and a bomb in a bus carrying women who were going to register voters in Jalalabad, which killed 3 and wounded 10 more. "The biggest threat to the electoral process is clearly I.E.D.’s," said Brian Nelson Smith, the regional security officer for the election commission. Yet most of the people interviewed here who were involved in preparing for the elections agreed that unless the Taliban, the remnants of the former rulers of Afghanistan, made major changes in tactics, the explosions would not prevent or seriously disrupt the election. The voter registration campaign has created strong momentum for the election, they say.

"They are going to do what they can, but they are not going to stop the process," said Maj. William Renaldo, deputy commander of the American civil affairs team in Gardez.

He pointed to the example of Paktika Province, one of the most dangerous parts of the country, which runs along the Pakistani border and has been almost a free zone for Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in the last two years. The provincial governor has made a major push, backed by the United Nations and a substantial American-led coalition force, to win over the tribes and start reconstruction. As a result, registration has progressed across the province, he said.

The Taliban are not powerful enough to go against the wishes of the tribal leaders, he said.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Abdul Latif Hakimi, claimed responsibility in a telephone interview for recent remote-controlled explosions against American forces, but denied involvement in the Ghazni mosque bombing. Mr. Hakimi said there would be more attacks.

The weak link in the country’s security remains the local Afghan police. In southeastern Afghanistan, the police are so poorly equipped and understaffed that the tribes have assembled their own militia forces in the last two years. Now the officers of an American-led program are scrambling to train and equip the local police in time for the elections. In Gardez, they have been delivering vehicles and radios to the police in the region, but cannot provide them with needed weapons or ammunition.

"They are having a real hard time," Major Renaldo said of the local police. "They have no weapons. They are not in very good shape."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/international/asia/22afghan.html