Washington-Pakistan should outlaw or at least temporarily ban ?Çô ammonium nitrate, which is finding its way into Afghanistan in staggering amounts for making improvised explosive devices for use against NATO forces, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., declared at a recent hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on “How to Jam the IED Assembly Line Impeding the Flow of Ammonium Nitrate in South and Central Asia.” Casey explained that he understood farmers in Pakistan rely on AN as a fertilizer, especially for cotton, but offered that officials may want to consider a temporary ban during this precarious period. A local ban was instituted in the Multan district earlier this year as militant attacks were on the rise. At a minimum, Pakistani authorities need a coherent legislative framework in order to better regulate this dangerous chemical, says Casey, who said IEDs are the chief killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He has targeted ammonium nitrate, which is more often smuggled over the porous Pakistani border for nefarious purposes, as the primary explosive ingredient behind them. “The statistics are sobering,” Casey asserted. “More than 6,000 IEDs have been discovered in Afghanistan so far this year, and the devices have killed 190 U.S. soldiers, wounding 2,459 more. According to the Pentagon, four out of five IEDs are built with ammonium nitrate smuggled into Afghanistan.”
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain