massive weapons cache seized in afghanistan- E' |. P1 `) O. @2 V8 D
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.- g, a- c0 g4 @: W+ N: l1 |3 D
the arms were to be used to subvert crucial legislative elections on sept. 18, defense ministry spokesman gen. mohammed saher azimi said.
6 s+ Z- e2 y/ h+ S" _$ f4 T* } 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.
9 p4 ]* b1 u; {# A( M "the enemy planned to use them to sabotage the elections," azimi said. "this was a very important operation to prevent the killing of civilians."
P3 [5 m& j, ^* s) L2 U7 h% K 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 X! Q4 y) P( {7 h& ~6 i* t2 n
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. |