Air Force explosives disposal team defuses bombs at Afghan school

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U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael Laskowski, an explosives disposal team leader, prepares to move a deadly homemade bomb consisting of two Chinese-made 82 mm mortars, a recoilless rifle round two feet in length and a pound of explosives material in a bag. The 31-year-old Anchorage native rushed to the Poorak Girls School after Afghan police found two bombs rigged to explode on and around the school's property.


Air Force explosives disposal team defuses bombs at Afghan school
By Les Neuhaus, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, November 30, 2007

POORAK, Afghanistan — Going to school can be deadly if you are a girl in Afghanistan. The Taliban believe that women should not have the opportunity of an education.

The roughly 400 girls enrolled at the Poorak Girls School in eastern Afghanistan’s Logar province were reminded of that on Thursday when two bombs were found by Afghan and U.S. forces. One, a hand grenade rigged to explode, was planted underneath the guard building at the school’s entrance.

“The Taliban do not want girls to go to school, to be educated or to grow up to be leaders,” said Col. Abdul Majeed Latifi, the deputy chief of police in Logar. “I am 100 percent sure this was the work of the Taliban.”

A U.S. Air Force explosives disposal team rushed in driving snow to the village upon getting the call from Latifi’s men early in the morning.

Upon arrival, Tech. Sgt. Michael Laskowski, 31, initially found a bomb placed underneath a footbridge in front of the school.

Its was made up of two Chinese-made 82 mm mortars, a two-foot-long recoilless rifle round and a pound of explosives material placed in a bag — all of it wired up to batteries.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50617