Allies Uncover Cache of Bomb Material in Afghanistan
Nice work to the unit(s) responsible for this.
Quote:
November 11, 2009
Allies Uncover Cache of Bomb Material in Afghanistan
By DEXTER FILKINS
KABUL, Afghanistan —With fertilizer bombs now the most lethal weapons used against American and NATO soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the operation in Kandahar was something close to astonishing.
In a pair of raids on Sunday, Afghan police and American soldiers discovered a half-million pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that is used in the overwhelming majority of homemade bombs here. Some 2,000 bomb-making devices like timers and triggers were also found, and 15 Afghans were detained.
With a typical homemade bomb weighing no more than 60 pounds, the seizure of that much fertilizer — more than 10 tractor-trailer loads — removed potentially thousands of bombs from the streets and trails of southern Afghanistan, officials said.
“You can turn a bag of ammonium nitrate into a bomb in a matter hours,” said Col. Mark Lee, who heads NATO’s effort to stop the bombmakers in southern Afghanistan. “This is a great first step.”
The operation in the southern city of Kandahar, which announced Tuesday, is by far the largest of its type. Ammonium nitrate is illegal in Afghanistan; farmers here are allowed to use other types, like urea-based fertilizer, on their crops. Most of the ammonium nitrate fertilizer in Afghanistan is believed to be imported from Pakistan.
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