The Practice Of Booby-Trapping Ammo Is More Widespread Than Thought

Dirty Tricks of Government Forces: Where Deception And Deadliness Meet Inside A Gun -- C. J. Chivers, New York Times

When out on patrols in Afghanistan, Western soldiers often uncover ammunition caches used by the region’s many fighting groups. And when on the archipelago of outposts from which they work, these same soldiers routinely have access to weapons carried by the Taliban, including Kalashnikov assault rifles, PK machine guns, rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and 82-millimeter mortars. But soldiers and Marines have been told for years not to combine these two naturally paired items — captured ammunition with captured arms — for training or other uses, even though practice with the most common weapons in Afghanistan could reasonably be seen as a valuable part of preparing for the war’s daily work. Western forces are also discouraged from collecting ammunition in the field and passing it on to the Afghan Army and police forces, who often carry weapons that could use it.

Does this make sense? It depends on what a soldier knows, or is told by officers and nearby explosive-ordnance disposal techs.

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My Comment: This is nasty and probably very effective.