Massive weapons cache seized in Afghanistan. R+ H; O; w: [5 G
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。 2 k3 p2 U# g& D# q6 k) A! ~$ ? The arms were to be used to subvert crucial legislative elections on Sept。 18, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen。 Mohammed Saher Azimi said。" N1 {) ?. x3 ?3 x
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。3 S2 c: Z% f/ B4 \7 K) E0 f& |
The enemy planned to use them to sabotage the elections, Azimi said。 This was a very important operation to prevent the killing of civilians。 ' F& S7 w* [# h2 m3 b, I5 B 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。& |7 {. J- [5 k! j! v6 j2 s
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。