quote:

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The explosion comes near the end of Canada's deadliest month in Afghanistan. Ten Canadian soldiers have died in September

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Yet I sense that each death is getting less and less publicity in the news.

1. Mine style trap that was indescriminantly set. Meaning it could have been there for years and this soldier was unlucky. Whomever set it didn't have a set target beyond making a scene. This would be the most 'terrorist' explaination (intent wasn't for a soldier, intent was for terror in general). I'm leaning away from this explaination though, it was on a patrol route and would have been set off by some other unfortunate person before now.

2. Mine style trap aimed at a patrol. This would point towards a much better oraganized insurgency than what I think alot of people give the Taliban credit for. To do such, you would have needed to observe the patrol path and times to know when a patrol was coming and where.

3. Random mine style traps recently set. It's sorta as per above, but if you haven't taken the time to understand the patrol routes, it would be as effective to setup 20 traps along the way and hope somebody hits one. Once again, this is heavily on the 'terrorism' side as you're not really targetting anyone in particular, just those that would use those roads.

4. Targetted and triggered in person event. Someone was sitting in some hills with binoculars watching that section and triggered the explosive when a target got close enough. This would imply very selective targetting (as opposed to triggered mines), which is a step beyond terrorism... If this was the case, it would show a more sophisticated enemy (starting to border guerilla warfare instead of insurgency)

All 4 possibilities are there (the only one I think we can eliminate with the information so far is #1, but that is based on speculation), and each will tell a bit to the 'enemies of Afghanistans' oragnizational level, their targets, and their abilities.

[ 29 September 2006: Message edited by: Noise ]