Counter-IED Report Spring-Summer 2021 - preview edition

ISSN 2050-6732 (Print) ISSN 2050-6740 (Online)

Counter-IED Report Spring/Summer 2021

FACING HYBRID THREATS: EFFECT-ORIENTED INTELLIGENCE AND INTELLIGENCE-DRIVEN EFFECTS

MISUSE OF ONLINE SERVICES FOR THE FINANCING OF TERRORISM THE IED CLEARANCE GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE: ESTABLISHING HUMANITARIAN PROCEDURES FOR MINE ACTION

IMFAD AND HUMANITARIAN MINE ACTION ACTIVITIES IN NORTHWEST SYRIA EOD HELMET PROTECTION IN SMALL BLAST SCENARIOS USE OF IEDS AND VBIEDS IN MEXICAN CRIME WARS SIDE TO SIDE OR TOP DOWN: WHY SCANNING VEHICLES FROM THE TOP DOWN MAKES MORE SENSE

THE IMPACT OF BREXIT ON THE INCREASE IN NORTHERN IRELAND’S PARAMILITARY ACTIVITY REVENGE IN THE SKY – THE KANISHKA SAGA KURDISH AIR FORCES? TRENDS IN WEAPONIZED DRONES BY HÊZÊN PARASTINA GELÊ (HPG)

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The opinions and views expressed in the editorial content in this report are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the views of any organisation with which they may be associated. Material in advertisements and promotional features may be considered to represent the views of the advertisers and promoters. The views and opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily express the views of the publisher. While every care has been taken in the preparation of the report, the publisher is not responsible for such opinions and views or for any inaccuracies in the articles. © 2021. The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright.

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ISSN 2050-6732 (Print) ISSN 2050-6740 (Online)

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

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ICOR TECHNOLOGY

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GARRETT METAL DETECTORS

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AUNAV BY EVERIS ADS

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MED-ENG – A BRAND OF SAFARILAND GROUP

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FOREWORD

By Rob Hyde-Bales, Consulting Editor, Counter-IED Report

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VIDISCO LTD

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FACING HYBRID THREATS: EFFECT-ORIENTED INTELLIGENCE AND INTELLIGENCE-DRIVEN EFFECTS

By Lieutenant Colonel Jose M Rufas, Chief of Attack the Networks Branch, C-IED Centre of Excellence

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TELEDYNE ICM

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TECHNICAL EXPLOITATION IN WATER ENVIRONMENT - WORKSHOP / SEMINAR

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VC SECURITY BY VISICONSULT

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MISUSE OF ONLINE SERVICES FOR THE FINANCING OF TERRORISM

By Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director, Counter Extremism Project

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COUNTER-IED REPORT, Spring/Summer 2021

ONE TEAM, ONE FIGHT ICOR announces acquisition of Proparms Ltd. As market leaders in EOD robots for 20 years, ICOR knows a good thing when it sees it. That’s why we’re excited to bring the market leader in disruption technology, Proparms Ltd., into our family of products. Enjoy the same great quality disrupter tools with the added bonus of ICOR’s unsurpassed manufacturing and customer service.

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

33

3DX-RAY LTD

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NATO EOD DEMONSTRATIONS AND TRIALS 2021

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THE IED CLEARANCE GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE: ESTABLISHING HUMANITARIAN PROCEDURES FOR MINE ACTION

By Ian Robb and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Friedel, GICHD 44

DEMINING AND EOD SEMINAR

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IMFAD AND HUMANITARIAN MINE ACTION ACTIVITIES IN NORTHWEST (NW) SYRIA

By Gürkan Keskin, Director of Humanitarian Mine Action Association (iMFAD)

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COUNTER TERROR EXPO - CTX 2021

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EOD HELMET PROTECTION IN SMALL BLAST SCENARIOS

By Aris Makris, Ph.D., Ming Cheng, Ph.D., Jean-Philippe Dionne, Ph.D., Jeffrey Levine, M.Eng., R&D and Engineering, Med-Eng

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INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EXPO - ISE 2021

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SITDEF PERU 2021

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USE OF IEDS AND VBIEDS IN MEXICAN CRIME WARS

By Robert J. Bunker, John P. Sullivan, David A. Kuhn, and Alma Keshavarz, Small Wars Journal-El Centro and C/O Futures, LLC

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COUNTER-IED REPORT, Spring/Summer 2021

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

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JOINT CIVIL & DOD CBRN SYMPOSIUM AND TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE

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SIDE TO SIDE OR TOP DOWN John Howell, IED/EOD Security Specialist at 3DX-Ray, looks at why scanning vehicles from the top down makes more sense and why the ThreatScan® is the perfect tool for the job!

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MILIPOL ASIA-PACIFIC 2022

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THE IMPACT OF BREXIT ON THE INCREASE IN NORTHERN IRELAND’S PARAMILITARY ACTIVITY

By Dr David Lowe, Senior Research Fellow, Leeds Beckett University Law School

88

REVENGE IN THE SKY – THE KANISHKA SAGA

By Colonel H R Naidu Gade, Indian Army Veteran

93

CBRNE SUMMIT USA & CBRNE SUMMIT EUROPE

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DSEI JAPAN 2022

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KURDISH AIR FORCES? TRENDS IN WEAPONIZED DRONES

BY HÊZÊN PARASTINA GELÊ (HPG)

By Lieutenant Colonel Jose M Rufas, Chief of Attack the Networks Branch, C-IED Centre of Excellence

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FOREWORD

FOREWORD

By Rob Hyde-Bales, Consulting Editor, Counter-IED Report

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021 began as the year 2020 ended with the world facing a continuing massive global Covid-19 pandemic. The major difference this year has been the advent of some highly effective Covid-19 vaccination programmes. The UK introduced its programme at the end of 2020 and by the end of April more than 50% of its population had been vaccinated. At the other end of the scale India is now racked by a particularly pernicious Covid-19 pandemic that has completely overwhelmed the country’s medical facilities. On 7 May for example, India reported almost 4,000 deaths and 414,000 infections in 24 hours. This in a country with a population of some 1.4 billion people is a grave cause for concern. Globally at the end of April there had been more than 150 million cases of Covid-19 resulting in more than 3 million deaths.

On the security front the United States revised its departure date from Afghanistan from 1 May 2021 to a symbolic 9/11 this year. Of concern, the Taliban continue to gain ground and influence throughout the country and have declared their displeasure at what they view as the delayed US departure from Afghanistan. For the United States after nearly 20 years of conflict in their longest war there must be real concern about the possibility of a similar departure situation to that at the end of the Vietnam War when the Vietcong overran Saigon as the last US personnel evacuated the city by helicopter on 30 April 1975. The chaotic scenes of helicopters lifting off from the US

embassy in Saigon provided a fitting epitaph to the US experience in Vietnam.

Tensions between Russia and the West continue to increase, and the US and UK now categorise a resurgent Russia as an existential threat, whereas an increasingly powerful China is viewed as a competitor.

The leaders of both China and Russia have taken steps to secure their tenure in power for an increased duration. Both of these countries have dramatically increased hostile activities in the cyber space dimension. A recent major example of this was the cyber-attack identified by the US as having been undertaken by a foreign intelligence service, assessed to be the Russian SVR, against the Texas based IT management software development company SolarWinds in 2020. The attack initially not identified caused significant disruption in the US. In his article Dr Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director, Counter Extremism Project examines the nexus between internet services and the everincreasing use of these services by terrorist groups and extremist individuals to further their aims, disperse their propaganda and support their illegal activities. He describes efforts by law enforcement agencies to counter such activities. Social media, communications, and crowdfunding services are regularly used by these groups and individuals to transfer financial information, raise funds and coordinate finance activities. A particular concern is

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FOREWORD

the growing use of cryptocurrencies to raise, transfer and store funds and to circumvent law enforcement efforts. In the past two decades significant progress has been made to develop global mechanisms to counter the financing of terrorist and extremist activities, particularly in the United States and Europe.

The well-established Financial Action Task Force as the international global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog is a case in point. In Germany, the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) is designed to increase the accountability of social network providers in terms of unlawful content on their sites. Inevitably though, terrorist financers continue to exploit vulnerabilities in law enforcement systems and procedures and to develop ever more sophisticated technologies. Nowhere is this more apparent than the terrorist and criminal use of cryptocurrencies and their associated technologies to facilitate their aims by obfuscating their activities and to complicate the efforts of law enforcement agencies to counter these threats.

Gürkan KESKİN, Director of the Turkish NGO iMFAD and HMA activities in NW Syria describes the excellent and vital work that this NGO undertakes in Turkey and NW Syria. The aim is to eliminate the threat and danger of mines and ERW to permit a safer environment for the population to enhance socio-

in an overall shortfall in HMA funding across Syria.

There is now an urgent need to continue and to expand iMFAD activities to allow it to carry out its vital work in NW Syria with the requisite donor funding to meet the ever- increasing demands of Humanitarian Aid Assistance.

In their article Robert J. Bunker, John P. Sullivan, David A. Kuhn, and Alma Keshavarz, Small Wars Journal-El Centro and C/O Futures, LLC chart the relentless use of IEDs and VBIEDs by organized crime groups and drug cartels, initially in Colombia and later in Mexico. In Colombia, a particularly deadly campaign of terror was waged by the Medellin cartel capo, Pablo Escobar, arguably the most powerful and wealthiest cartel boss to date, against the Colombian State in 1989. The welcome terminal demise of Escobar and the cartel in 1993 ended this campaign. In Mexico IEDs have been used in two historical phases of deployment, initially in the early 1990s during conflict between the Sinaloa and Tijuana cartel factions of the Guadalajara cartel. A second phase in 2006-2012 resulted in a greater use of VBIEDs including the 2010 car bomb targeting the police station in Ciudad Juarez.

August 2016 saw the most recent phase of IED usage in fierce fighting between rival cartels in Guanajuato state. The authors highlight four recent cartel-linked VBIEDs in 2019 and 2020 – three in Mexico and one

economic development. It has been operating in NW Syria since April 2019 in partnership with the UK based HALO Trust and carries out EORE, VA, Mines and ERW clearance and Advocacy activities. Since 2011 and the so-called Arab Spring, Syria has been decimated by conflict which has left a legacy of widespread EO hazards. As a result, it is estimated that across Syria more than 11 million people require assistance. In 2019 the UN estimated that some 50% of the Syrian population live under the threat of explosive hazards. In NW Syria it is estimated that some 25% of EO accident victims are children. The impact of EO goes beyond injury and loss of life. It affects livelihoods, the safe return of refugees and IDPs and prevents the regeneration of communities post-conflict. The Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected the whole HMA sector, and this has resulted

in Colombia. No fatalities resulted from the Mexican incidents, but there were three deaths as a result of a Colombian truck mounted VBIED resulting from assessed involvement of a Mexican cartel with Colombian FARC dissidents. In Mexico VBIED usage was deemed to be mainly threat messaging or political or economic extortion. The devices in Mexico were typically low yield and emplaced to be recognized and to minimize unintended casualties. Explosives used were either home-made or commercial and not of military origin. To date other characteristics include an absence of moderate to large yield devices designed for anti-infrastructure targeting, an absence of land mines and not being used to assassinate. It is assessed that IED usage in the short term may well decrease as inter cartel conflict subsides. A longerterm concern is the possible use of IEDs by the rising

12 COUNTER-IED REPORT, Spring/Summer 2021

FOREWORD

CJNG cartel which will necessitate careful I/W monitoring of this cartel and its allies.

In their article Dr Aris Makris, Dr Ming Cheng, Dr Jean-Philippe Dionne, and Jeffrey Levine of Med-Eng, Ottawa, Canada, examine the critical necessity for full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for those undertaking EOD operations. Unfortunately, in some perceived lower risk EOD situations or missions involving higher speed tactical support, it has been noted that some EOD personnel chose not to wear full PPE for the purposes of enhanced comfort, reduced heat stress and faster response time. With the aim of addressing this false feeling of safety, the authors of this article demonstrate the benefits and injury reduction capabilities of a bomb suit even in smaller blast scenarios by focusing on head injury potential from blast overpressure. A pioneering study in 2010 using an advanced model human head investigated blast wave interaction, initially with a military helmet and then with a helmet and face shield combined. The results of this study showed no mitigation of blast effects on the brain when using just a combat helmet.

However, the addition of a face shield resulted in a significant reduction of stress on the brain and potential for injury. These results were echoed in subsequent Med-Eng computer simulations which investigated the blast effects of varying amounts of explosives on a model human head including the eyes and ears in various configurations- unprotected, wearing a combat helmet, wearing a combat helmet and shield, and finally wearing a full PPE suit. The results demonstrated the key role in minimising the risk of injury that a full PPE suit provides to the wearer in EOD operations. The trials also produced evidence that repetitive exposure to relatively low- level blasts can result in long term accumulative brain injuries, some of which may not manifest themselves until long afterwards. The recommendation is thus for EOD operators to always wear the full PPE suit in all EOD situations.

In their article Ian Robb and Lt Col Robert Friedel of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining highlight the devastating effects caused by IEDs in countries affected by past or present conflict

and the challenges that they pose to Humanitarian Mine Action. In Afghanistan for example, IEDs – in particular sub-surface improvised mines cause three time as many casualties as conventional landmines and UXO combined. The scale of this problem has necessitated a rapid and comprehensive response to address this acute humanitarian need. The authors identify the significant differences between military IEDD operations and humanitarian mine action. To address this issue, in 2020 GICHD developed the “IED Clearance Good Practice Guide”. Currently the Guide comprises four chapters – more are planned. Chapter 1 introduces IEDs in Humanitarian Mine Action. Chapter 2 covers Search Procedures, Chapter 3 deals with IEDD and Chapter 4 is an IED Indicators and Ground Sign Awareness Handbook. Further sections will be added including Chapter 5 on the basic chemistry of explosives and hazards from HME and chemical precursors. This Guide is yet another example of the excellent support provided by GICHD to HMA. ■

Rob Hyde-Bales biography During his career in the UK Royal Engineers, Rob Hyde-Bales was responsible for landmine clearance in Libya and, more latterly, Afghanistan in the running of the first United Nations humanitarian landmine clearance training programme – Operation Salam. The programme trained Afghan male refugees in landmine clearance techniques, and Afghan women and children in mine awareness and avoidance training. More recently he set up the Caribbean Search Centre in Kingston, Jamaica. The Centre is designed to train security forces across the Caribbean in modern search techniques. After retiring from the army he joined Cranfield University at Shrivenham, near Oxford, and undertook a research project on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence that examined ways to improve the sharing of IED threat information between the military and civilian organisations in hazardous areas.

counteriedreport.com 13

Technical Exploitation in Water Environment Workshop/Seminar Cartagena, SPAIN 06 - 08 July 2021 Organised by C-IED COE

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