Massive weapons cache seized in Afghanistan, F* A/ [- y/ `; N8 G0 c- `3 Y/ V
Thousands of rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft ammunition have been seized in central Afghanistan in the largest cache of militant weapons discovered in months, a government spokesman said Sunday。 ( A1 C/ Q$ U8 h( s7 t6 a1 g u8 F The arms were to be used to subvert crucial legislative elections on Sept。 18, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen。 Mohammed Saher Azimi said。( u4 p) F( y, T# @# B4 @
The raid in Ghazni provinces Khogyani district Saturday netted some 2,000 surface-to-surface rockets, 3,000 mortar rounds, 500 artillery shells and 100 boxes of anti-aircraft bullets, he said。$ J0 E& ~; h( j+ R& z
The enemy planned to use them to sabotage the elections, Azimi said。 This was a very important operation to prevent the killing of civilians。 3 i# @. p' ?* G$ P He declined to give any other details about the find, including whether the Taliban were suspected to have stockpiled the cacheorwhether anyone had been arrested。. O" s* S; m' y0 _" s& o
Afghan officials have warned that the Taliban and al-Qaeda have launched a joint campaign to disrupt the September elections ― the next key step toward democracy after a quarter century of war。 Since March, a major upsurge in fighting has left more than 800 people dead, more than half of them suspected insurgents, according to U。S。 and Afghan officials。