Bombs By The Truckload
Allied Forces Find '20 Truckloads' Of Weapons In Afghan Mountains

May 10, 2002

(CBS) For a week now, British troops have been sweeping through a mountainous area in southeastern Afghanistan and have not had any contact with the enemy. But they did uncover the largest cache of ammunition yet - and evidence that al Qaeda forces were there not too long ago.

Coalition forces discovered "more than 20 truckloads" of ammunition and weapons behind padlocked doors in a complex of four caves, a British commander said Friday.

The caves - two to three yards high and 30 to 50 yards deep - "are full or ordnance," said Maj. Jeff Moulton, speaking at the allied coalition's base in Bagram. Moulton said unknown ordnance had to be treated as unstable and destroyed.

Moulton said the cache, believed to belong to the Taliban or al Qaeda, included artillery and mortar rounds, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades — "all of these by the hundreds."

Military officials identified the location of the mission, code-named "Operation Snipe," where a British-led 1,000-man force has been operating. The mission has been in the mountainous area of Paktika province, on the eastern border with Pakistan, south of the area where U.S.-led forces have been concentrating their search for fugitive Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.

Elsewhere, four fighters loyal to war-torn Afghanistan's interim government were wounded in a rocket attack by suspected Taliban fugitives in southern Afghanistan, a police official said on Friday.

The fighters, who operate under Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai, were attacked late on Thursday in the desert, 47 miles southwest of the city. The fighters were hunting for remnants of the vanquished Taliban and al Qaeda network.

The police official said one of several rockets fired from nearby hills hit a vehicle, wounding four fighters.

"The troops returned fire and kept them engaged for half an hour without any success (in arresting them)," said the police official, who declined to be identified.

© MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc.
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