OLdies 1310

OTTAWA - Call them super-CSI, but in a flak vest and helmet.

The Canadian army is dramatically upping the ante in training expert soldiers to fight networks that plant roadside bombs and booby traps in Afghanistan.

It has advertised for a company to train bomb-disposal technicians and intelligence analysts in the finer points of tracking down and dismembering the cells that plant improvised explosives, responsible for the vast majority of Canadian combat deaths and injuries in Kandahar.

"One of the deficiencies noted in (the current operation) is that of the Canadian Forces' (CF) limited ability to effectively and systematically exploit adversary documents and equipment," says a recent federal tender document.

The army has already invested heavily in methods to defeat the homemade bombs and in new equipment, including specialized road-clearing trucks and detection gear. But it has lagged in methodically hunting down the groups that bury the explosives in the ground.

"We're focusing more on attacking the networks," said Lt. Kevin McNamara, former clearance diver now in charge of what's called exploitation training with the military's counter-improvised explosive task force.

Over the years, the Kandahar battle group has conducted operations aimed at dismantling networks. But McNamara said they've been "reacting to the bomb" and there is now a greater emphasis on "intercepting the guy before the bomb is laid."

This year, homemade bombs accounted for 11 of the 13 Canadian deaths in Kandahar. The Defence Department says 92 of the 151 Canadian casualties since 2002 were the result of IEDs — improvised explosive devices.

"We're very good at defeat(ing) the device. The bomb technicians, the equipment, the personnel — some of the best in the world," he said.

"We're very good at preparing the force and getting soldiers ready to go into theatre. The attack the network side of it — we haven't been focusing on it that much."

The military has not been able to concentrate on the networks because until the last 18 months there have been so few NATO troops on the ground in the volatile birthplace of the Taliban, McNamara added.

Much like the specialists in the hit television franchise Crime Scene Investigation, soldiers will be trained to pull various, sometimes incongruous, bits of information together.

The training regime would see a private contractor instruct up to 20 soldiers in a week-long course to identify networks, their leaders and all-important nodes — the places where bomb-makers get their funding and supplies.

The soldiers would get further instruction in biometrics, digging information out of captured cell phones, using enemy documents and the collection of evidence.

"This process may also include collection of information for an evidentiary purpose of legal proceedings," says the tender document.

The reference is significant because Afghan authorities have been demanding the Canadian military present them with more hard evidence of wrongdoing of prisoners they accept. The absence of that evidence and the frustration of local authorities prompted a halt in transfers last September — and sometimes led to the release of suspected Taliban fighters.

The training comes as all NATO countries fighting in southern Afghanistan step up efforts to defeat the often crudely assembled fertilizer bombs. The effort has been spearheaded by U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, who last winter called on allies to step up counter-IED training and research.

Recently, the Canadian army began fielding bomb-disposal robots called Dragon Runners, small enough to fit in a backpack but able to climb stairs and manoeuvre through doorways.

National Defence intends to continue the new training — known as sensitive site exploitation — even after the army withdraws from Kandahar next year. Defence analysts take it as sign that the kind of irregular war the country has fought in Afghanistan is here to stay.