UK Muslims providing Afghan Taliban bomb components for use against Brit forces

London, Feb 21 (ANI): Muslims living in the United Kingdom are reportedly providing the Taliban with electronic devices to make roadside bombs. These bombs are being used to attack British forces serving in Afghanistan.

The electronic devices are either sent to sympathizers in the region, or carried by volunteers who fly to Pakistan and then make their way across the border, enabling Taliban fighters to detonate roadside bombs by remote control.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband was given details of how British electronic components have been found in roadside bombs when he visited troops at their military compound at Lashkagar, in Helmand province, The Telegraph reported.

In a briefing on British operations in southern Afghanistan by Brigadier Gordon Messenger, Miliband was shown examples of crude homemade devices that are being used in attacks against British patrols.

They included mobile phones filled with explosives, which could kill or seriously injure British soldiers patrolling on foot, and more sophisticated devices that can be used against military vehicles.

Explosives experts who have examined the devices say they have found British-made electronic components that enable Taliban insurgents to detonate their homemade, roadside bombs by remote control.

The electronic devices smuggled into Afghanistan from Britain range from basic remote control units that are normally used to fly model airplanes to more advanced components that enable insurgents to conduct attacks from up to a mile away from British patrols.

The number of IED attacks against British forces has risen from an average of 27 percent of attacks in 2007 to an estimated 55 percent so far this year.

Improvised roadside bombs have killed a significant proportion of 145 British service personnel killed on active duty in Afghanistan. (ANI)