The community’s main fear relates to them finding military ordnance and suspicious objects, or discardables, that they believe the non-state armed group modified into weapons. There have been reports of explosions, but these mostly occurred in the 30 days after the conflict ended when the community was still identifying areas that were dangerous.
DURING NTS THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE WAS RECORDED
IED indicators
• The route had a number of vehicles travelling on it during NTS. The compound of interest, highlighted in red in Image 83, was determined as an area the local community did not use (negative environment CAGE indicator) . • Some of the local community stated they were warned not to go near the compound during the conflict, and also advised not to be in the vicinity whilst opposing forces were present. • A former police officer suggested that during the conflict there were explosions along the route triggered by ‘observers’. It was stated that some were effective, and some were not. He once witnessed an explosion occurring just in front of an armed group’s vehicle. • As the route runs into the town from the desert it becomes constricted and bottle-necked at the urban–rural interface.
• The ground is compacted sand and it would be viable to emplace subsurface IEDs or main charges (a Big 5 indicator ).
IED signs
• There is a top sign item identified through colour change and regularity on the compound of interest. This is believed to be an IED component, probably an antenna.
Top sign location
Ground sign location
Image 84. Showing the locations of the top sign and ground sign
• Suspicious ground sign disturbance can be seen in the area highlighted in blue on Image 84. • There is regularity in the form of a small black wire, around 50 mm in length, protruding upright from the top corner of the south-eastern compound wall. • There is damage in the vicinity including a compound in an additional nearby VP consistent with explosive fragmentation from military ordnance displaying regularity and colour change, which could be termed as discardables as well.
Scenario examples
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