GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: 'New Taliban device' killed bomb expert

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: The Independent

10February2011 2:11pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: A bomb disposal hero did not have equipment to detect a new Taliban device which killed him in Afghanistan, an inquest heard today.

Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid was posthumously awarded the George Cross for disarming 64 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in five months.

But on the last day before he was due to fly home to see his family, he triggered a pressure plate which had recently been developed by the Taliban.

The 30-year-old was hailed as "phenomenally great" and "a giant of a man" as his inquest in Truro came to a close.

S/Sgt Schmid died after his knee came into contact with the plate as he disarmed his third set of explosives on that day alone in Sangin.

Colonel Bob Seddon, Britain's top bomb disposal officer who resigned last year, said it was a "constant battle" to keep up with new IEDs developed by the Taliban. (read full report)

 

 

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