#20 Teresita:

Your UK Independent reporter is both ignorant and too lazy to bother with a google search.

The Taliban is doing something that the Germans did in WW2:

http://www.efour4ever.com/mines_german.htm

Fragmenting AP Mines: The Schu or Shu-Mine is a small wood box fragmentation mine. It measures six-inch by six-inch and contains a detonator and a solid charge. Another name or spelling of this mine is “Shoe Mine” or “Shoe Box ” mine. The “Shoe Box” was a favorite among the Germans. Small in size and constructed primary of wood, the Schu is next to impossible to discover with a normal metal mine detector. It seldom kills instead the sinister device mutilates the unfortunate victim.

and the Russians copied the German mine after WW2:

http://www.nolandmines.com/PMD6.htm

The PMD-6 is a rectangular wooden anti-personnel blast mine sometimes called the “Shoe-box” mine. It has been found in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Cyprus, Ecuador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Honduras, Iraq, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Western Sahara, Yemen and Zimbabwe. Relatively easy to manufacture locally, its dimensions and colour may vary. It is usually either unpainted wood or olive green in colour.

Height: 65mm
Length: 190mm
Width: 90mm
Main charge: 200g TNT
Fuze: the fuse is usually an MUV type deployed so that pressure on the lid of the box pushes out the pin. The detonator is usually a stab-sensitive MD-2.

The Taliban is simply putting more explosives in the wooden box.