Massive weapons cache seized in Afghanistan
: D) Z Q u1 D: i- x 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.# V# H* `" V; ]" n8 z* [: n! @0 Y
The arms were to be used to subvert crucial legislative elections on Sept. 18, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Saher Azimi said.- l4 y, _. [& h n8 z" _5 R# k
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., J/ D8 D0 O# X* G: P3 i
"The enemy planned to use them to sabotage the elections," Azimi said. "This was a very important operation to prevent the killing of civilians."
Y9 v* q( O: N& R' @. { He declined to give any other details about the find, including whether the Taliban were suspected to have stockpiled the cache or whether anyone had been arrested.
5 n# ^* u; 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. |