Canadian soldiers are getting killed in Afghanistan at more than three times the rate of British troops in Helmand province and more than four times the rate of U.S. soldiers in the east and south, The Globe and Mail reports. The heavy losses are attributed to the increased use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, by insurgent forces.
The IED threat is heightened "by the fact that Canadian troops have yet to receive the latest anti-IED technology and lack helicopters to avoid the perils of land transport." Canada is the only major fighting force in Afghanistan with no helicopters, the article notes. "Other countries make heavy use of them to transport troops and supplies to and from forward operating bases. Canada must instead rely on regular ground convoys travelling predictable routes. Although efforts are made to vary timings, the regular flow of Canadian military vehicles on some roads makes them easy targets... Without better IED-detection capabilities and only a limited surveillance capacity, the Canadian troops can't detect many IEDs and are less able than some contingents – notably the Americans who patrol routes with unmanned aerial aircraft– to spot them being planted.
