massive weapons cache seized in afghanistan5 E+ n K/ I! @
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 z4 I& S, U, V! r/ m4 z6 T3 j- u
the arms were to be used to subvert crucial legislative elections on sept. 18, defense ministry spokesman gen. mohammed saher azimi said.
) s6 c0 j' s. `' Y+ ^; u: Q 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.
! K3 m7 x; w# A, { "the enemy planned to use them to sabotage the elections," azimi said. "this was a very important operation to prevent the killing of civilians."! @! ~: k$ d2 w" ^- n' z
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.* R6 ]$ J* |% p0 {* z4 O. z5 B
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. |