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。& k- a7 D+ Z, T" |. M
the arms were to be used to subvert crucial legislative elections on sept。 18, defense ministry spokesman gen。 mohammed saher azimi said。1 k/ h2 H, O+ W" I4 Y7 M0 S* ^; ]
the raid in ghazni province‘s 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。1 B4 s# a) Z0 u; Z% V$ F# m, s8 X
the enemy planned to use them to sabotage the elections, azimi said。 this was a very important operation to prevent the killing of civilians。. Y3 ?$ W+ v: c# `! v
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。, _2 V, \: _6 a, Q, R: @4 O- I; `
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。 |