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
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