Afghanistan -- Troops Face Increasing IED Threat

A suicide bomber hit a NATO convoy in October in southern Afghanistan.
Recent attacks aimed at civilians (New York Times)

From The BBC:

The green zone in the town of Sangin, southern Afghanistan, is full of trees, maize fields and lush vegetation.

It's also a death trap.

British troops here often refer to it as IED Valley (Improvised Explosive Device) because of the number of roadside bombs.

In the last six months the Taleban have realised they can't beat UK forces in this area by conventional warfare, so they've resorted to planting hundreds of explosives in areas regularly patrolled by the Brits.

Two very different characters who've been helping British troops are Master Sergeant Chavez, a US army explosives expert and Trio the dog.

Chavez told Newsbeat: "If it blows up, I go out and make it not blow up."

Meet Trio the sniffer dog and find out what he does

While Trio, an eight-year-old black Labrador, has the job of sniffing out IEDs and showing the patrol where they are.

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