Iraq, Afghanistan bomb innovation slows -Australia

CANBERRA, May 10 (Reuters) Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are winning the arms race with insurgents, as the militants become less innovative in improving roadside bombs, Australia's military said today.

After several years of rapid development by insurgents of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, including bombs capable of directing their blast to destroy armoured vehicles, the level of innovation was now dropping off.

''The increase in sophistication has probably slowed in recent months,'' Lieutenant-Colonel Russell Maddalena, who commands a special Australian military task-force set up to counter roadside bombs, told reporters in Canberra.

''We are also seeing our counter-measures defeat that in a number of ways,'' he said.

Improvised roadside bombs are blamed for at least 1,250 deaths among US-led international forces in Iraq and around 70 percent of all coalition casualties each month.

While IEDs were originally set off to begin militant attacks, a rapid increase in their sophistication and explosive power saw them become the insurgent weapon of choice.

The devices have been hidden in drink cans, in tunnels under roads, on road overpasses, inside dead animals and even within cement casings to target coalition troops.

Australia, a close US ally, was one of the first countries to commit forces to the Iraq war and has around 1,500 troops in and around Iraq. Another 700 troops, including 300 special forces commandos, are in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province.

Maddalena, whose IED task-force works closely with US and British counterparts, said so-called ''shaped'' or directed charges had evolved to the level that they were capable of taking out even large Abrams battle tanks.

''There is no one silver bullet to defeat IEDs. However we can and do regularly mitigate the threat as a result of the protection afforded by a number of procedures. These provide a layered effect,'' he said.

Methods used to defeat IEDs include intelligence and surveillance, vehicle and body armour and high-speed travel in what Maddalena said amounted to a ''mini arms race''.

But he refused to say whether Australia's military shared suspicions Iran was supplying Iraq insurgents with technological know-how to construct more effective IEDs.

Three Australian soldiers were injured last month when a shaped charge was used against their light armoured vehicle in southern Iraq, although Canberra is yet to suffer its first combat death on coalition operations.

Reuters RJ RS1017