Wednesday, September 09, 2009 LONDON: A suspected explosive device was found Tuesday at a major Royal Air Force base in the southwest of England, the Ministry of Defence in London said. Explosive experts were investigating the suspected device at RAF Lyneham, where many of the bodies of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan are returned, the ministry said."A suspected IED has been discovered at RAF Lyneham," a spokesman said. "An EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team are on site and currently working to make the area safe."Officials said the alarm was raised when sniffer dogs reacted to a vehicle on the perimeter of the base, which is home to four RAF transport squadrons flying C-130 Hercules. They declined to give further details.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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