Afghan roadside bombs hit record in 2008

[unhappycamper]

Afghan roadside bombs hit record in 2008
By Tom Vanden Brook - USA TODAY
Posted : Monday Jan 26, 2009 5:39:52 EST

WASHINGTON — Roadside bomb attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan hit an all-time high last year, killing more troops than ever and highlighting an “emboldened” insurgency there, according to figures released by the Pentagon.

Last year, 3,276 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) detonated or were detected before blowing up in Afghanistan, a 45 percent increase compared with 2007. The number of troops in the U.S.-led coalition killed by bombs more than doubled in 2008 from 75 to 161. The Pentagon data did not break down the casualties by nationality.

Roadside bombs in Afghanistan wounded an additional 722 coalition troops last year, setting another record.

In Afghanistan, “an emboldened, increasingly aggressive enemy has increased the use of IEDs,” Irene Smith, a spokeswoman for the Joint IED Defeat Organization, the Pentagon’s lead agency for combating roadside bombs, said in an e-mail.

“The trajectory of trends in 2008 has been in the wrong direction,” Michael O’Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution, said Sunday of the IED records. “We’re losing the war. This shows a greater capacity on the part of the Taliban and other insurgents to cause more death, destruction and challenges to the legitimacy of the Afghan government.”


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/01/gns_afghanistan_ieds_012609/%2e