The Booby-Trapped Corpse Game
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Coalition forces in Afghanistan are being warned to look out for a gruesome and unusual tactic being used by insurgents.
The International Security Assistance Force said bomb makers in Kandahar province, where Canadian troops have been stationed for two years, have twice in recent days used human corpses to hide bombs.
The first such IED (improvised explosive device) was planted on the body of a decapitated Afghan national found in a cemetery on Dec. 21, ISAF spokesman Brigadier-General Carlos Branco said Monday.
Two Afghans were killed and two others were injured when the bomb exploded.
Nobody was hurt after a second booby-trapped body was discovered Sunday about 18 kilometres away from the first incident.
“We cannot establish a pattern. This is not the beginning of something,” Gen. Branco insisted. “So far this is sporadic.”
Though booby-trapping bodies was a common tactic elsewhere, including Vietnam and Mozambique, Gen. Branco said it happened only once before in Afghanistan – in August, 2006.
Hey, look! It’s Mullah dadullah, fearless Taliban leader!
Hey, look! It’s Mullah Dadullah, fearless DEAD taliban leader! Burial cloth provided by Code Pink.
Insurgents use all kinds of things to hide explosives, including animals and other objects, he added.
While it is believed the insurgents killed the two men before using their bodies as bombs, Gen. Branco would not speculate on why they might have done this.
The Taliban have been known to kill civilians as a means of intimidation, but Gen. Branco could not say whether the target was civilian or military.
“The only thing I can tell you is we are going to take measures to spread the information to our troops and to be very cautious in similar situations,” he said.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the absolute disgraceful use of human corpses to place IEDs.”
“For insurgents to use such tactics goes far beyond the pale of human decency, desecrating human remains in such a way.”
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Let’s not forget that the Russkies used to drop little toys disguised as bombs, and pens, etc. The better to blow up the innocent with. Same tactic, different scum.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:48 pmer, bombs disguised as toys….
December 26th, 2007 at 8:48 pmIIRC, the AQ in Iraq has been doing this all along.
December 26th, 2007 at 10:23 pm