KABUL — International troops and Afghan police seized 250 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, enough to make up to a couple hundred roadside bombs, the Taliban’s most lethal weapon in what has been the deadliest year of the war, NATO said Tuesday.
Separately, video footage emerged of insurgents brandishing what appears to be limited stocks of U.S. ammunition in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan where eight Americans died in a battle last month.
Sunday’s raids in the southern city of Kandahar appeared to net one of the largest hauls of the war. NATO officials hoped the fertilizer seizure would hurt the Taliban, whose homemade bombs have become the biggest killer of U.S. and allied troops.
Acting on a tip, international forces and Afghan police discovered 1,000 100-pound bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and 5,000 parts for roadside bombs in a warehouse, the military said.
After the initial find Sunday, an additional 4,000 100-pound bags of fertilizer were found in a nearby compound. The joint forces also made 15 arrests.
Fertilizer is easily available in agricultural areas of southern Afghanistan, and the Taliban has been successful manufacturing homemade bombs from this and other materials.
In a country awash in weapons after 30 years of war, the Taliban also appears to have little trouble getting rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other ordnance, some of which may be bought on Asian black markets.
There is not much evidence to suggest that the Taliban relies on weapons captured or stolen from NATO forces or that they need to shore up their stockpiles, said John Pike, director of the military think tank .
“I don’t think they have a shortage of Kalashnikovs,” he said. “I think it’s probably more often a case of it leaking out of the Afghan army. I think the Afghan National Army has a high AWOL rate and everything’s for sale in Afghanistan.”
