Afghan roadside bomb incidents on rise

The Pentagon says that roadside bomb incidents involving US and NATO troops in Afghanistan have hit their highest level in at least 4 years.

The report says that about 200 such incidents happened in Afghanistan between April and June 2008, resulting in over 40 casualties.

The spring peak coincides with an intensifying insurgency that has pushed US military deaths in Afghanistan above those in Iraq for the recent months.

Militants in both Iraq and Afghanistan were more likely to use explosive detonated via cell phones or similar radio waves. But now they have moved to less sophisticated devices like command wires and pressure plates.

Army Lt. Gen Thomas Metz, head of the US military's counter-IED organization, blames the increase on the shift saying that the US has developed, and is using, better sensors and other technologies to detect and defeat the more sophisticated models.

Mets, the US forces' second-in-command in Iraq in 2004-05, added that the low-tech devices create a 'harder problem' for the soldiers.

The Pentagon says the increase is due in part to the presence of more coalition troops in Afghanistan. The US has 34,000 troops in Afghanistan. 16,000 of them are under NATO command.