AFGHANISTAN: ALPINES NEUTRALISE 4 EXPLOSIVE DEVICES

Pubblicato il 26 Luglio 2010 - 17:04 OLTRE 6 MESI FA

Alpine troops billeted in Shindand have defused four home-made explosive devices. A bomb was made safe during the course of operation “Caronte”, carried out by the 32nd Alpine Engineer Regiment early yesterday morning as they were escorting a convoy of over 40 lorries loaded with humanitarian aid to the Pharsi district, together with Afghan units. During the journey, rougly 40 km east of Shindand a powerful explosion went off along the route taken by the convoy. A team of Afghan experts that had been sent ahead to the location of the explosion found a crater, likely to have been caused by a home-made bomb exploding during positioning. During the last couple of days, Alpine military engineers have been asked by the Afghan police to dispose safely of two bombs discovered close to a military convoy in transit and on an unsurfaced road respectively. In the latter case, a remote-controlled robot was employed. “The threat of improvised explosives also applies to humanitarian and civilian convoys, constituting a constant risk. In two days four devices failed to harm the civil population largely thanks to specialists from the 32nd Regiment and the Afghan security forces”, said Lieutenant Stefano Zonin, head of the IEDD Unit (Improvised Explosive Devices Disposal) in Shindand