Another member of our army was killed in Afghanstan yesterday. He was a Royal Marine from 40 Commando Royal Marines, serving as part of Combined Force Sangin.
He was killed in an explosion while he was conducting a ground domination foot patrol through the souther Green Zone in order to reassure local nationals and understand their concerns about living in the area.
More life-long grief for another family and friends. A young life lost for no good reason.
In an attempt to stem the criticism of the lack of bomb disposal experts, combat engineers, (of the Royal Engineers), will now be tasked with blowing up many of the improvised devices rather than having to dismantle every one of them. This will mean that soldiers with less training will be able to neutralise the devices, lessening the pressure on the ATOs. Sources said it was a temporary measure.
The move is controversial. One former high threat operative with 11 EOD, Major Chris Hunter, said: "Only the most experienced operative will know whether a device can be exploded or has to be dealt with in place."
The British armed forces death toll for the Afghanistan war now stands at 288.
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6 comments:
Every MP who voted for that war ought to be forced to spend 3 months with our troops, AT THE FRONT.
I'd say longer. Insist they stay until they withdraw Joe.
Were Joe's desire met, we would be out before they finished square bashing!
They'd be ought as soon as they could transport OR.
ATOs and SATOs are RLC (which absorbed the former Royal Army Ordnance Corps) - they are the ones that do the detailed analysis. Both the RLC and the RE (although mostly the later IIRC) do on-site EOD.
Olaf Schmid GC and Kim Hughes GC are RLC ATOs not RE.
I know that SE, but the latest report says that the RE are to become more involved and train to blow the things up.
Sorry maybe I didn't make it clear, my fault.
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