Posted on 06/23/2002 6:12:22 AM PDT by Ranger
By LEE KEATH : Associated Press Writer
Jun 23, 2002 : 6:17 am ET
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) -- British marines stormed a compound in an Afghan village, captured more than 10 armed men and found rooms piled high with mortars, rockets and heavy weapons they said may have belonged to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
Marines said Sunday the weapons cache was one of the biggest found by troops who have been scouring southeastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border for al-Qaida or Taliban fighters.
"In the last room, there was a curtain. When I pulled it back, it was like, 'Oh my God,'" Sgt. Buck Ryan told reporters. "It was stacked up to the roof with weapons and ammunition."
The cache was found Saturday, when marines on a patrol in the village of Surwipan, 12 miles north of the town of Khost, spotted the compound and became suspicious because of a large antenna array on its roof.
When the marines from Britain's Zulu Company approached the compound, a man peeking out the door suddenly slammed it shut. The marines heard shouting and commotion from inside, so the troops broke in through the stone wall, Ryan said.
The men inside, some wearing military fatigues, surrendered without resistance -- though the marines found Kalashnikov assault rifles hidden under benches and ready to fire close at hand. The men destroyed two radios before the marines could get in.
More than 10 men were taken into custody. The marines would not give an exact number or say where they were taken. While the site was being secured, a number of white vans were seen driving away from the village.
The Britons spent the next 24 hours counting the weapons found stored in five or six rooms and searching them for booby traps. On Sunday, they stacked up box after box of rockets and ammunition in the compound's courtyard, where chickens ran about in the dirt.
The armory included hundreds of large mortar rounds and rockets, thousands of recoilless rocket rounds and 65,000 rounds of small arms ammunition.
Also found were stacks of rocket launchers, several anti-aircraft machine guns and several large mortar launchers. Much of the equipment was new.
There were also several boxes of plastic explosives as well as timers, detonation cord and other equipment for making bombs and booby traps, said Sgt. Colin Hill, Zulu Company's munitions expert.
The arms "may belong to the al-Qaida or Taliban," said Maj. Richard Stephens. The stash was far beyond the weaponry that villages often have for their defense, he said.
Villagers told the marines that enough arms to fill five trucks had been kept in the compound, but that men came recently and took most of it away, Ryan said. The remainder amounted to nearly two truckloads.
Tensions were high in the village during the raid and afterward. As the soldiers secured the compound, villagers stood nearby and shouted at them. As the marines sifted through the stash, villagers fired off guns outside, though not toward the soldiers, marines said.
The troops called in an A130 gunship plane, which circled overhead during the night, dropping flares, but did not open fire.
"The crowd outside was very hostile," Marine Liam Armstrong said. "We were afraid they would throw a grenade over the wall."
British Marines and U.S. special forces searching along the Pakistani border have found almost no al-Qaida or Taliban fighters in the past weeks. They have uncovered a number of stores of weapons thought to have been left behind by fighters.
"It's the best thing we've had so far," Armstrong said of the Surwipan find. "It's given us all a huge buzz. This came as a surprise."
Check out your 20th century history. What it comes down to, in the end, is the English speaking people against the bad guys. Every time. Every place.
Fortunately, we won, every time. So far.
Is that why the Canadians are so friendly with Castro? ;-)
Modern digital radios store frequency use data. To contact accomplices you just need to press desired button.
So long as someone ordered them to do it, of course.
I did not intend to infer that you were slighting anyone. I was just commenting on who can be relied on when the chips are down and civilization, as we know it, is truly threatened, as now.
Hey. Consider for a moment that not everyone in Canada agrees with the foreign policy of the government, check my screen name.
My point was simply that when things get sticky, English speaking people hang together, knowing we will hang separately if we don't.
As for Canada's Cuban policy. Did it ever occur to you that Canada's relations with Cuba can work to the advantage of some elements of the US government? Canada has travel and commercial relationships with Cuba. Doesn't this fact make it easier for the intelligence services of the US to run agents to Cuba? Don't you think there are agents operating in Cuba now whose travel links (rat lines) run from Havana to Montreal/Toronto and back down to Hq. in Langley? I hope so.
As for Castro. This is one Canadian who recognizes him for what he is, just another two bit commie slavemaster. His time is coming.
That said, I well aware of the sacrifices that Canadians have made at Vimy Ridge, Dieppe, Juno Beach, etc.
I just hope that the Politically Correct Canadians of the latter part of the 20th Century never forget those sacrifices made by the Politically Incorrect Canadians of the first half of the 20th Century. It is only such sacrifices that acquires for a nation the freedom and security that make it possible for some sergments in society to indulge in the luxury of Political Correctness.
Merely uulating gets old after a while.
I agree with your comments in post 15. Just to clarify, I am still a Canadian, just not proud of it anymore.
As I told your Border Patrol agent last week, there are sh*tty politicians on both sides of the border.
This is off-topic for this thread but, as I've never really studied Explosive Ordnance Disposal, could someone explain why EOD types feel the need to get up close and personal with these thing?
Since all types of ordnance can be bought on the black market, the intel as to origin can't be very useful. Why don't they have snipers plink these things for target practice at 200 yards instead of risking lives? As for land mines, don't the flailling chain tanks they used in WW II work better than using some poor E-4 with a hand probe?
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