$3b US equipment for countering bombs used in Afghanistan

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KABUL, July 8 (AFP): The United States (US) is set to deliver three billion dollars worth of equipment aimed at countering Taliban-made crude bombs used in the Afghan war, a US official said Thursday.
Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have become the main weapon used against international and Afghan forces fighting to end an insurgency increasingly seen as bogged down in favour of the Taliban.
The equipment was 'at least doubling' current counter-IED capacity as forces did not have all they needed to take on an escalating threat, said Ashton Carter, US undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics.
The new equipment, including tethered surveillance blimps, heavily armoured vehicles and detection machinery such as robots and mine detectors, would arrive in Afghanistan in the coming months, he told reporters.
Carter said the equipment would be accompanied by about 1,000 counter-IED experts, including laboratory technicians, intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials.
IEDs are the biggest threat facing troops engaged in the war in Afghanistan, now well into its ninth year.
A June UN report marked an 'alarming' 94 per cent increase in IED incidents in the first four months of this year compared to 2009, as the military says intensifying efforts against the Taliban are being matched by more attacks.
Afghan authorities had banned the use of ammonium nitrate fertiliser and were tightening the border to restrict its flow into Afghanistan, Carter said.
Meanwhile, corruption in Afghanistan has doubled in three years since 2006, despite pledges by the government to clean up graft in one of the world's poorest countries, according to a survey released Thursday.
Afghans paid one billion dollars in bribes in 2009, twice the value of those paid in 2006, according to Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA), a non-profit corruption watchdog.