THE plight of Flight Lieutenant John Lynham is a graphic reminder of the unrelenting dangers facing Wittering-based 3 Squadron RAF Regiment and other British servicemen in their brave battle against the Taliban.

For five months, the 159-strong group has been embroiled in a cat and mouse game with insurgents in southern Afghanistan.

As the men try to stop the Taliban firing mortars and rockets into Kandahar Airfield, insurgents respond by planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Earlier this month, Flt Lt Lynham was travelling in a vehicle that was struck by such a device, a home-made explosive, which catapulted him out of the back of the wagon.

Flt Lt Lynham sustained serious injuries, but on Friday he was released after a fortnight of treatment at a hospital in Birmingham.

Despite his injuries, Flt Lt Lynham can count himself lucky to be alive.

Read more of Jonny's reports from Kandahar:
Our Man in Afghanistan - peterboroughtoday.co.uk/kandahar
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On April 13, Senior Aircraftman (SAC) Graham Livingstone, of 3 Squadron, and SAC Gary Thompson, of 504 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force Regiment, which is attached to 3 Squadron for the duration of its six-and-a-half month deployment, died when the vehicle they were travelling in hit an Italian anti-tank mine.

Thermal imaging cameras and metal detectors, along with sound judgement, had seen the men from Wittering safely detect 16 out of 19 IEDs prior to unwittingly detonating them.

The most recent find was an anti-tank mine wired up to a pressure cooker packed with explosives attached to an anti-personnel mine.

Known as a daisy chain, the interlinking series of booby traps would have caused devastating, multiple explosions.

Meanwhile, for all their cunning, the Taliban is not responsible for every roadside bomb.

The threat facing 3 Squadron is complicated by Afghanistan's legacy of conflict, with many mines and unexploded material, dating back to the Russian invasion in the '80s and the American bombing of Kandahar Airfield in 2001, lying undetected.

Villages surrounding the base use stones to mark out safe routes between minefields, while there are even unexploded devices, although clearly marked, within the airfield's wire.

IEDs are now the number one threat facing 3 Squadron, partly because the men have been so successful in stopping rocket attacks against the airfield. Their patrols have meant that attacks on the airport have, for now, ceased, with the Taliban turning to IEDs as a chief method of attack.

The officer commanding 3 Squadron, Squadron Leader Andy Jones, who was travelling in the same vehicle as Flt Lt John Lynham when the explosion happened, said: "The guys have got to have spider senses, checking to see if ground has been disturbed and examine vulnerable points, such as bridges and culverts.

"Assessment of the ground they are going to cross is essential. Some finds have been made purely down to the guys being alert."