Posted on 06/24/2002 5:22:47 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
BAGRAM, Afghanistan, Jun 24, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A rocket was fired near U.S. special forces in southeastern Afghanistan, a spokesman said Monday. The attack came soon after nearby British forces seized a large stash of weapons that may have been left by al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.
None of the troops was injured in the rocket explosion near the town of Khost. The soldiers searched for the firing site but did not find it, said Col. Roger King.
In the nearby village of Organ-e, residents told U.S. troops that rockets might be aimed at the Americans in the area. A U.S. patrol searched the area and found a rocket that had been armed but failed to launch, King said.
It was not immediately clear when the rocket had been fired, but it happened after Saturday's discovery by British troops of one of the largest weapons caches yet uncovered in southeastern Afghanistan.
More than 10 men - some in camouflage fatigues - were detained during the raid in the village of Surwipan, marines said. Eight were brought to the military interrogation center at Bagram air base.
Gen. Tommy Franks, the top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was due to visit Bagram Monday. Franks met Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad earlier in the day for talks about security in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.
Late Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that individuals or small pockets of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters may still exist but posed no threat to his government.
"They are a defeated force," Karzai told "CNN's Late Edition" from the Afghan capital, Kabul. "They are on the run. They are hiding and we are after them. In those terms they are not a threat at all to the government."
The British patrol chanced on the weapons stockpile after spotting a large antenna on top of a building in Surwipan.
Their suspicions raised, they moved in. A man was peeking out the door of the compound, smiling, but when he saw the marines, he ducked inside and slammed the door. The marines heard men running around inside and shouting, Sgt. Buck Ryan said.
The troops smashed through the compound's stone wall. The men inside, some wearing military fatigues, surrendered without a fight, though several Kalashnikov assault rifles were found nearby, ready to fire, Ryan said. The men destroyed two radios before the marines could get in.
Inside, they found rooms filled with firepower.
"We were taken aback by the amount of stuff here," Ryan said. "In the last room, there was a curtain. When I pulled it back, it was like, 'Oh my God.' It was stacked up to the roof with weapons and ammunition."
The haul 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 and mortar launchers, several anti-aircraft machine guns, several boxes of plastic explosives with detonators and other equipment for making bombs and booby traps, said Sgt. Colin Hill, of Britain's 45 Commando Group.
The stash was far larger than the weaponry that villages often have for their defense and "may belong to the al-Qaida or Taliban," said Maj. Richard Stephens, the group's commander.
While the site was being secured, a number of white vans were seen driving from the far side of the village, but the marines were unable to stop them. Villagers gathered outside the compound and shouted at the troops as they worked.
"The crowd outside was very hostile," Marine Liam Armstrong told journalists. "We were afraid they would throw a grenade over the wall."
Marines counted the weapons Saturday night while villagers outside fired shots in the air. A U.S. C-130 gunship plane circled overhead, dropping flares, but did not open fire.
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