Afghanistan's fledgling national army has seized a large weapons cache during a search operation in a Taleban stronghold in the south-east of the country, a defence official said Sunday.
Some 12,000 mortars, 5,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 4,000 machinegun rounds as well as guns and landmines were seized last week in Zabul province some 445 kilometers (280 miles) south of the capital Kabul, defence ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said at a press briefing.
Zabul has been the site of frequent insurgent attacks on government and aid workers. The rugged mountains and valleys of Afghanistan are scattered with thousands of weapons caches left over from a quarter century of war. Many of the stockpiles date from the decade-long war against Soviet invaders which ended in 1989.
There is no official record of the number of weapons dumped around the country, but Afghanistan is still awash with arms and the disarmament process is proceeding slowly.
So far, 11,770 members of private militias have laid down their weapons out of an estimated 40,000-60,000 miliatiamen nation-wide, according to UN figures Sunday.
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