WASHINGTON — While improvised explosive devices are killing an increasing number of U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan, American officials are trying to limit the flow of one the key ingredients in the bombs.
Ammonium nitrate, the chemical compound that the U.S. wants to keep out of Afghanistan, is commonly used in agricultural fertilizers but also to produce IEDs.
According to a 2009 report by the Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organization, IEDs were the most serious threat to coalition forces in Afghanistan. A recent Defense Department report found that IEDs accounted for nearly 60 percent of coalition casualties between April and the beginning of October.
While the Afghan government banned the import, production and transportation of ammonium nitrate-based fertilizer in January, U.S. officials say it is still widely available in that country.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Near Eastern, South and Central Asian Affairs, said during a hearing that ammonium nitrate is “ubiquitous” in Afghanistan.
Speaking in Brussels before the World Customs Organization in October, David Johnson, assistant secretary of the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, noted that despite the ban, “anti-government elements are employing larger and more sophisticated IEDs than ever before.”
Ammonium nitrate is smuggled into Afghanistan from its neighbors — Pakistan in particular — where its commercialization and production is legal, according to U.S. officials.
Mary Beth Goodman, senior economic adviser to the Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in testimony before Casey’s subcommittee that data indicate Pakistan produces and imports more ammonium nitrate fertilizer than it consumes, suggesting that some of it is shipped to Afghanistan.
In recent months, the U.S. has promoted several initiatives to prevent ammonium nitrate from arriving in Afghanistan.
The Senate approved a resolution in June urging Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Central Asian countries to monitor and regulate the transport, production and sale of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.
In April, the Department of Homeland Security, in cooperation with the State Department, launched Global Shield, an international operation designed to monitor the commercial flows of 12 chemicals, including ammonium nitrate, that can be used to produce explosives. The operation puts a particular emphasis on training customs agents from different countries to detect suspicious chemicals and share information and intelligence about them.
Pakistan is participating in Global Shield and, Goodman said, is “working constructively to develop a coherent strategy to stop the proliferation of IEDs into Afghanistan.”
Officials also recognize that the U.S.-led effort against the illegal use of ammonium nitrate fertilizer is made especially challenging by the porous border that separates Afghanistan from its neighbors as well as Pakistan’s largely undocumented economy.
David Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, said the response from Pakistan is encouraging, but “there is a long way to go.”
And while Casey calls on Pakistan to pass restrictive legislation on ammonium nitrate, others are more skeptical.
Moeed Yusuf, South Asia adviser at the United States Institute for Peace, said that he does not see the regulation of the chemical as one of Pakistan’s top priorities.
This goal, he said, is not realistic given all the problems facing Pakistan, including the government’s ability to actually monitor trade flow.