Posted on 03/22/2002 2:52:01 PM PST by knak
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. forces searching through the Shah-e-Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan (news - web sites) have found what appears to be an explosives factory abandoned by Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, a military spokesman said Friday.
The site contained explosives and equipment to make more, as well as medical supplies, said Navy Cmdr. Dan Keesee of U.S. Central Command in Florida. Keesee could not say whether the factory was in a cave or in buildings. It was found on March 13.
No evidence of chemical or biological weapons research or production was found at the site, Keesee said.
Keesee said Marine Corps helicopter gunships have also destroyed as many as a dozen ammunition caches in the Shah-e-Kot area.
U.S. surveillance teams remain in the Shah-e-Kot valley area, despite the end of Operation Anaconda, a Marine Corps spokesman in Afghanistan said.
The operation was launched March 2, to clear the valley of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters. Gen. Tommy Franks declared the operation over this week and deemed it a success, although Afghan commanders said most of the al-Qaida and Taliban fighters escaped.
Elsewhere, U.S. forces have recently found what appears to be another rudimentary al-Qaida biological weapons research site near Kandahar, a defense official said Friday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The lab appeared to be under construction, and officials found no evidence the terrorist organization could make weapons out of diseases or poisons, the official said. Instead, searchers found medical supplies and commonly available chemistry equipment.
The only surprise was the lab's location, which was not previously known to U.S. forces. The defense official did not say how the United States learned about the lab.
U.S. forces have investigated dozens of suspected chemical and biological weapons research sites in Afghanistan. But they concluded that al-Qaida's effort had not advanced enough to create any weapons capable of killing massive numbers of people.
"Documents recovered from al-Qaida facilities in Afghanistan show that bin Laden was pursuing a sophisticated biological weapons research program," CIA (news - web sites) Director George J. Tenet told a Senate committee this week.
Example:
Discussion initiated by knak on 03/23/2002 2:52 AM Eastern with 1 comment
Thought you might want to know, if you didn't already.
Good. Let's dump some aspirin on it ...
Tell me if at the bottom of each Thread teaser it doesn't say:
Discussion initiated by ... 03/23/2002 4:39 AM Eastern with 1 comment
Thanks
Our troops need to watch out for the primative but creative weapons of war while we exterminate the vermin.
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