GOLCAR soldier Graham Shaw was the latest British casualty of the Taliban’s deadliest weapon – the IED.
Since the beginning of 2009, improvised explosive devices – usually roadside bombs – have killed more than 260 International Security Force personnel.
The figures were compiled by the website iCasualties.org.
IEDs were a successful tactic for insurgents in Iraq.
IEDs prey on the need for coalition forces to use slow-moving convoys of heavy vehicles to replenish smaller units fighting in the mountains and deserts.
The IED itself consists of an adapted landmine or artillery shell rigged up to a makeshift detonator.
The bombs are often placed on a roadside and can be detonated by wire by a hidden insurgent
Bombs are typically hidden inside dead animals or drinks cans and other litter beside the road.
More sophisticated IEDs are rigged up to tripwires which act as booby traps, or detonated via radio or mobile phone signals.
The bombs are usually designed to explode underneath or at the side of a vehicle where armoured plating may be thinner and weaker.
And in recent weeks, the troops from the 3rd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment have been using a new generation of heavy duty Mine Resistant Armoured Protection (Mrap) vehicles such as the Mastiff II, based on the US Cougar model.
Did you know L/Clp Graham Shaw? If you want to pay tribute to him please email: kevin.core@examiner.co.uk or telephon 01484 437764
