Counter-IED Report Winter 2023-24 - preview edition

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

Counter-IED Report Winter 2023/24

BUILDING THE C-IED ENTERPRISE TO COUNTER THE IED SYSTEM LEGALLY EMPOWERED C-IED ENTERPRISES INDIA – THE NATIONAL COUNTER-IED STRATEGY SMART CHOICES IN SOURCING COUNTER-IED DETECTORS: A PRIMER HAMAS TERROR TACTICS EMPLOYED IN ISRAEL’S DEADLIEST TERROR ATTACK - OCTOBER 7, 2023 “PROTECTING STEEL FROM HORNETS”: RUSSIAN REACTIONS TO THE TACTICAL THREAT BY EXPLOSIVE-LADEN DRONES IN THE UKRAINIAN THEATRE OF OPERATIONS GOLIATH’S SON AGAINST DAVID: EVOLVING PALESTINIAN MILITIAS’ TACTICS, TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES (TTPs) AGAINST ISRAEL

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

IFC

6TH C-IED TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOP

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ICOR TECHNOLOGY

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GARRETT METAL DETECTORS

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FOREWORD

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

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NOVO DIGITAL RADIOGRAPHY

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BUILDING THE C-IED ENTERPRISE TO COUNTER THE IED SYSTEM

By Paul Amoroso, an explosive hazards specialist at Assessed Mitigation Options (AMO) consultancy

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COUNTER-IED REPORT, Winter 2023/24

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

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CANADIAN TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS - CTS

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WORLD POLICE SUMMIT

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LEGALLY EMPOWERED C-IED ENTERPRISES

By Paul Amoroso, an explosive hazards specialist at Assessed Mitigation Options (AMO) consultancy

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INDIA – THE NATIONAL COUNTER-IED STRATEGY

By Colonel H R Naidu Gade (Retd.)

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SMART CHOICES IN SOURCING COUNTER-IED DETECTORS: A PRIMER

By William Ramirez, a veteran of the Colombian military from Military Engineers Corps

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HAMAS TERROR TACTICS EMPLOYED IN ISRAEL’S DEADLIEST TERROR ATTACK - OCTOBER 7, 2023

By Chief Superintendent (ret.) Michael Cardash

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KADEX 2024 - KOREA ARMY INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE INDUSTRY EXHIBITION

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COUNTER-IED REPORT, Winter 2023/24

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

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“PROTECTING STEEL FROM HORNETS”: RUSSIAN REACTIONS TO THE TACTICAL THREAT BY EXPLOSIVE-LADEN DRONES IN THE UKRAINIAN THEATRE OF OPERATIONS

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

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JOINT CIVIL & DOD CBRN SYMPOSIUM AND TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE

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GOLIATH’S SON AGAINST DAVID: EVOLVING PALESTINIAN MILITIAS’ TACTICS, TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES (TTPs) AGAINST ISRAEL

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

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COUNTER-IED REPORT, Winter 2023/24

FOREWORD

FOREWORD

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

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023 saw increasing instability across the globe. The major conflict continues to be the war in mainland Europe following the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both sides continue to use IEDs, landmines, cluster munitions alongside advanced conventional weapons (ACW). The most crucial battle adaptation in this war was the employment of hundreds of thousands of landmines by Russian forces to repel the Ukrainian army counter-offensive. Ukraine has not yet succeeded in breaching the Russian defences, with the aim of reaching the Sea of Azov, and is now building its own defensive lines facing a potential Russian attack.

In the Middle East, conflict dramatically expanded when the Hamas terrorist group based in Gaza launched a brutally coordinated attack against Israel, which started in the early hours of 7 October. The attack, which had been planned in detail for more than a year, caught Israel by surprise and revealed key shortcomings in its intelligence services. Israel has described the attack as the worst ever against its homeland. The Hamas tactics used in this attack are described in extensive detail in this edition of CounterIED Report by a retired Chief Superintendent of the Israeli Police Force – Michael Cardash – currently a member of Terrogence Global, and by Lieutenant Colonel Jose M Rufas, Chief of Attack the Networks Branch of the C-IED Centre of Excellence. At 0625 hrs on 7 October Hamas launched at least 2,200 missiles against Israel in just 20 minutes – the attack overwhelming the sophisticated IDF Iron Dome antimissile defence system. The missile strikes were followed by coordinated air, sea and land infiltrations

by some 3,000 terrorists. The air attacks were undertaken by motorised paragliders and the ground assault succeeded in breaching the very sophisticated border defence system between Israel and Gaza.

Some 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers were slaughtered by the terrorists and more than 240 hostages were kidnapped to Gaza by Hamas. On 8 October Israel declared itself to be at war with Hamas, with the stated aim of eradicating the terrorist organisation, and on 9 October imposed a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, accompanied by air strikes. At the end of October IDF ground forces entered the Gaza Strip. According to Gaza Health Ministry, to date more than 20,000 Palestinians have lost their lives and more than 50,000 have been injured. At the time of writing this Foreword the conflict continues.

In another regional development, the Iranian-backed Houthis who seized much of Yemen in a civil war, have launched a persistent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea to show support for Hamas in its war in Gaza. On 12 January the U.S. military forces together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in the region.

In Iraq and Syria, a group of Iranian-backed militias has carried out more than 120 attacks on U.S. bases since mid-October using rocket fire and explosive-laden drones. U.S. forces have conducted several retaliatory airstrikes, including one on 4 January, killing an Iranlinked militia commander in Baghdad.

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FOREWORD

Turkish armed forces continue to target sites that officials claim to be associated with the PKK in Iraq and Syria. In recent months Turkish police and security services made a number of arrests targeting PKK and ISIS terror cells as well as organised crime groups.

In Iran, on 3 January, in an apparent twin suicide attack, which was later claimed by the Islamic State, 103 Iranians were killed and 171 injured in the south-eastern city of Kerman. The dead and injured were mourners at a ceremony marking the 2020 assassination by a drone attack of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander, Qassem Soleimani. According to the state media, the main suspect who planned the attacks had entered Iran in mid-December by crossing the southeast border and left two days before the attack after making the bombs.

Authorities have arrested 35 people suspected to be involved in the attacks.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s efforts to establish security are facing ongoing challenges. Despite recent successes in stamping out opium poppy cultivation which has plunged by an estimated 95 percent following a drug ban in April 2022, frequent car bombings and suicide bomb attacks underline the difficulties to bring stability and order in the impoverished, by the decades of conflict, country.

In Pakistan, militants continue to deploy IEDs, VBIEDs, suicide and gun attacks to target civilians and security personnel mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Punjab. Despite police, army and security services’ ongoing efforts, in 2023 the country saw a surge in violence for the third consecutive year, with 1524 violence-related fatalities and 1463 injuries in 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations.

In India, the explosive violence and attacks on security forces continue to pose a challenge. In the State of Chhattisgarh alone around 180 IEDs were recovered by the security forces in 2023. In late December 2023 in Jharkhand State Maoists blew up a railway track at Binuan village which severely affected train movement on the Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai route, luckily no one was hurt in this incident. In Jammu and Kashmir, police and security forces regularly recover IEDs and their components.

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In Somalia al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants continue to launch armed attacks and bombings against civilians and government forces in various parts of the country including Somalia capital Mogadishu, which has seen a notable decline in the attacks in the recent months after Somali security forces and police stepped up their efforts to restore peace and stability in the country. In December 2023, the Somali government has welcomed the United Nations Security Council decision to lift the arms embargo which was imposed on the country in 1992 in order to cut the flow of weapons to feuding warlords, and said that it will significantly bolster the capabilities of the Somali National Army and security forces to combat terrorist threats.

In Kenya, 30 terror attacks planned by al-Shabaab and Daesh terror cells were foiled by police in 2023, however, bomb and IED attacks continue to claim the lives of security personnel as well as civilians.

In Nigeria, ISIS-linked insurgency presents serious challenges to Nigeria’s national security, as gun and IED attacks continue to target government officials, security forces and civilians across the northern and central regions of the country, resulting in deaths and injuries.

Kidnappings and armed banditry continue to wreak havoc; in the recent attacks between 23 and 25 December 2023 at least 200 people were killed and more than 500 injured in several rural communities in the central state of Plateau.

In September 2023 Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso formed the Sahel Alliance to tackle jihadist insurgency, which erupted in Mali in 2012 and spread to Niger and Burkina Faso by 2015.

In Mexico, drug cartels are increasing the use of bomb-dropping drones and improvised explosive devices. On 3 December 2023 ten IEDs were found by Mexican authorities after a Tucson border patrol observed gunshots at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In Northern Ireland, police record an increase in callouts to investigate IEDs and pipe bomb threats, and petrol bomb attacks continue to take place in the region.

In Sweden, violence from gang-related shootings and bombings which previously affected bigger cities, is now spreading to quieter suburbs and towns, presenting significant challenges for law enforcement.

FOREWORD

Landmines and ERW continue to pose risks and claim lives in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Angola, Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian government, Ukraine has allocated about €500 million for mine clearance, which will be spent on survey equipment, machinery and equipment for bomb disposal experts. Since the beginning of 2023, Ukraine's and non-governmental organisations’ bomb disposal units have inspected and brought back into use over 200,000 hectares of agricultural land. In Southeast Asia, the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) revealed that in 2023, over 30 individuals experienced the impact of explosive ordnance, marking a 24 percent decrease from the same period in 2022. The CMAA reaffirmed its commitment to achieving the demining target to the mine-free Cambodia 2025 goal. Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence in combination with aerial surveys promise to speed up demining efforts and improve the safety of EOD technicians.

In his article, Paul Amoroso of Assessed Mitigation Options consultancy provides the latest in a series of articles in this publication devoted to national and regional Counter-IED efforts. This time he highlights the need for C-IED enterprises to be legally empowered through an appropriate legal framework that matches the C-IED approach adopted by the State. The development of an appropriate national C-IED approach linked to a supporting legal framework within which a national C-IED enterprise is undertaken will support internal coherence, cooperative culture and collaborative efforts between members of the enterprise. The legal framework refers to the rules, rights and obligations to which those involved in C-IED efforts must adhere. His innovative approach examines the various types of increasing and indiscriminate usage of IEDs in criminal use, terrorist usage, use by insurgents and finally in open warfare. He goes on to recommend a spectrum of C-IED approaches to counter the different types of outlined IED usage. He begins with a Criminal Justice Model, moving then to a CT approach, then COIN and finally to a War Model – de facto combat engineering. He suggests various

factors that may be considered when assessing existing C-IED capabilities and capacities. These include, inter alia, finances and funding, infrastructure, legal framework, equipment, leadership, personnel, training and interoperability. Using these factors to assess a Counter-IED enterprise in terms of capabilities and capacities will identify areas requiring further attention.

In a most informative article based on a wealth of operational knowledge and experience, William Ramirez, a retired Colombian Military Engineer, provides a detailed breakdown of the necessary considerations, processes and procedures to be addressed when purchasing landmine and IED detection equipment. He outlines in detail 10 critical factors for consideration when purchasing such equipment. He highlights the differences between operational and humanitarian landmine detection and how this will likely affect purchasing decisions. The sum total of his extensive experience in both operational and humanitarian demining results in a most comprehensive guide for key decision makers tasked with purchasing detection equipment. ■

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.

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Upcoming Events in 2024 5 – 7 March 2024, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

28 – 30 May 2024, Seville, Spain

12th Annual Joint Civil and DoD CBRN Symposium 13 – 14 March 2024, Washington, D.C., USA

25 – 29 September 2024, Goyang-si, Republic of Korea

18 – 19 March 2024, Budapest, Hungary

16 – 18 October 2024, Prague, Czech Republic

21 – 23 May 2024, Abu Dhabi, UAE

22 – 26 October 2024, Istanbul, Türkiye

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