Afghanistan, March 25, 2012 (AFP) - Afghan police in the southern province of Kandahar have seized at least 17 tonnes of explosives insurgents were planning to use for improvised explosive devices, a senior officer said Sunday.
Around 5,000 packets of explosives weighing three to 10 kilograms each, with 200 fuses and two more tonnes of explosive materials, were found Friday in two tractor-towed trailers, border police chief Tafseer Khan Khogyani told AFP.
The shipment was coming from Quetta, where the Taliban leadership council is based, he said, and the drivers were killed in the operation. Improvised explosive devices are the deadliest weapon used by the insurgents in Afghanistan, who have been fighting the government of President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies for a decade.