massive weapons cache seized in afghanistan
   thousands of rockets, mortars² and anti-aircraft ammunition³ have been seized in central afghanistan in the largest cache of militant⁴ weapons discovered in months, a government spokesman said sunday.
   the arms were to be used to subvert⁵ crucial legislative⁶ elections on sept. 18, defense⁷ ministry⁸ spokesman gen. mohammed saher azimi said.

   the raid in ghazni province's khogyani district saturday netted some 2,000 surface-to-surface rockets, 3,000 mortar¹ rounds, 500 artillery⁹ shells and 100 boxes of anti-aircraft bullets, he said.

   "the enemy planned to use them to sabotage¹⁰ the elections," azimi said. "this was a very important operation to prevent the killing¹¹ of civilians¹²."

   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.

    afghan officials have warned that the taliban and al-qaeda have launched a joint¹³ 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 insurgents¹⁴, according to u.s. and afghan officials