Often called “sticky bombs,” these small explosive charges can be quickly slapped onto the side of a car or truck
 | | A classroom at Kabul University, after an attack by gunmen that killed at least 22 students in November.Farzana Wahidy for The New York Times |
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On Wednesday, my colleagues David Zucchino and Fahim Abed in Kabul published a story about how the Taliban have made magnetically attached improvised bombs an important tool in a widespread assassination campaign targeting Afghan government officials. |
Often called “sticky bombs,” these small explosive charges can be quickly slapped onto the side of a car or truck by insurgents riding on motorcycles, and have exploded nearly every day somewhere in Afghanistan this fall — with dozens such attacks in Kabul alone the past six months, The Times reported. |
One of these weapons killed Mahbubullah Mohibi, the deputy governor for Kabul Province, on Tuesday, and a few hours later, a similar attack killed Abdul Rahman Atshan, the provincial council deputy chief of Ghor Province, in central Afghanistan. |
As I helped Mr. Zucchino find information about these devices, I reached out to an old friend in the military bomb-disposal world who recently deployed to Afghanistan. What this friend said was that since these attacks, to this point, have not targeted Americans, the U.S. military command in Afghanistan has not focused on them as much as it did in years past, when improvised explosive devices were a leading cause of American casualties. |
According to the current U.S. commander’s staff, the reason for the reduced focus is that Afghan forces are now in charge of securing their country, to include the city of Kabul. The Americans are advising the Afghans “on a range of security threats,” said Col. Sonny Leggett, spokesman for the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, and that includes counter-I.E.D. training as well. |
“We take seriously the targeted killings which detract from the peace efforts,” Colonel Leggett said. “Which includes magnetic I.E.D.s.” |
With roughly 4,000 American military service members in Afghanistan at the moment, the number of U.S. bomb technicians there is just a fraction of what it once was. There are just two U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal companies in the country, my source said — one focused on conventional missions like responding to roadside bombs or training Afghan forces, and the other supporting special operations forces — numbering perhaps 60 soldiers, maximum. |
It could be seen as a sign of progress, perhaps, that the U.S. commanders feel that they need fewer of these specialists because of the Taliban holding to the so-called February Agreement, in which they pledged to end direct attacks on U.S. forces. Nonetheless, it was striking to me that American troops were not regularly picking through the remains of these magnetic bomb attacks, as they would have in years past, in order to study the subtle changes in their fabrication and to develop countermeasures against them. It used to be a regular facet of the war back when tens of thousands of U.S. troops were regularly targeted by improvised bombs. |
While these magnetic bombs do not appear to be technologically sophisticated, and versions of them have been seen in Iraq and Afghanistan many times before, the collection of whatever parts and pieces left behind after such devices detonate has been an important part of American counterinsurgency efforts since the Sept. 11 attacks. Entire commands — such as the U.S. Navy’s Expeditionary Exploitation Unit One in Indian Head, Md. — have been created in recent years and built upon the work of earlier ad hoc task forces that analyzed that kind of material in the field and provided intelligence that can be used to target bomb-making networks. |
The part of me that spent a decade dealing with improvised bombs and studying their migration across borders makes me think about how easily these magnetic bombs could be attached to vehicles carrying Americans, anytime the Taliban chose to do so. But this shift could be a sign that the American military may be fully and finally ready to let go of that country. |
John Ismay is a general assignment reporter covering breaking news, and previously served as the At War reporter covering armed conflict for The New York Times Magazine from the Washington bureau. He can be reached at john.ismay@nytimes.com. |
Afghan War Casualty Report: December 2020 |
 | | The magnetic bomb that killed Mr. Mohibi left a crater in the road.EPA, via Shutterstock |
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At least 79 pro-government forces and 39 civilians have been killed so far in December in Afghanistan. [Read the report.] |
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