Massive weapons cache seized in Afghanistan/ j, h) D: g$ M$ o7 a7 j
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.5 j2 a' K+ v4 X+ b! k3 p& {5 V
The arms were to be used to subvert crucial legislative elections on Sept. 18, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Saher Azimi said.* E4 D1 B& k% c p& v( }) N+ S" Y
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.
" H& W' x H1 U4 G) t7 L "The enemy planned to use them to sabotage the elections," Azimi said. "This was a very important operation to prevent the killing of civilians."
% j# ?( O3 h5 Z' w, E9 i" m 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.
7 s, d7 j9 p8 ]( R! s8 F 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. |
发表于 2012-8-15 00:04:42
