. Blog: Tackling Taliban’s deadliest weapon

Improvised explosive devices – IEDs – are the deadliest threat facing British forces in Afghanistan, and more resources than ever are being deployed to limit the threat of the Taliban’s tactic of choice.
The bleak and windswept land with its thin tufts of grass is criss-crossed with wires and oblong packages half-hidden in holes in the ground. We are warned not to get too close – the ground beneath our feet is riddled with explosives.
This is not Helmand, but Shoeburyness, Essex, where British army bomb disposal experts are doing their final training before they deploy to Afghanistan later this month with 11 Brigade.
Training to counter this threat has increased markedly over the past months, not only for bomb disposal experts but also for ordinary soldiers now acquiring more specialised counter-IED knowledge as part of basic training.
Just a few minutes later, when we are 100 yards (90m) or so away inside a concrete building, the earth shakes and a blast wave hits us. An enormous plume of smoke rises in the grey skies.
The men from 33 Engineer EOD Regiment have successfully blown up the devices.

Tags: weapon