Posted on 09/20/2002 6:58:00 AM PDT by BallandPowder
KABUL (AFP) Sep 20, 2002
An anti-aircraft missile found on the outskirts of the Afghan capital was aimed along the flight path of civilian passenger jets using Kabul's airport, a government information official said Friday. Afghan police acting on intelligence found the missile armed and ready to fire at Maidan Shahr in Wardak province west of Kabul, said Sidiq Ullah Tawhidi, deputy director of the information service.
"It was on the flight path of commercial jets, but the target may just as easily have been military planes belonging to coalition forces in Afghanistan," Tawhidi told AFP.
"There had been a tip-off about the missile so the whole area was cordoned off before the discovery was made."
Tawhidi said no one had been arrested and there was no indication who was involved. "Police tell us their investigations are ongoing, so far they do not have any suspects."
He said Afghan intelligence officials had identified the missile as a British-made Blowpipe, normally fired from a shoulder-mounted launcher.
Blowpipes were supplied to Afghan insurgents during the 10-year Soviet occupation of the country from 1979.
The current government says it has returned the bulk of anti-aircraft weaponry, mainly highly accurate Stinger missiles, to US forces.
But foreign military sources in Kabul told AFP they believed at least six Stingers remain in circulation in Afghanistan and pose a potential threat.
A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which patrols Kabul, said he was unaware of the missile find in Wardak.
"It is in an area which is outside our jurisdiction but we will be looking into it," said Squadron Leader Terry Hay.
Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak also said he had not been informed of any missile discovery.
Commercial air traffic to and from Afghanistan has increased steadily in the months following the collapse of the hardline Taliban regime, under whom international aviation links were virtually severed.
This week saw the launch of a new service by Afghan flag carrier Ariana to Frankfurt, with other destinations including Islamabad and New Delhi and cities in the Middle East.
The missile discovery is the latest in a series of alerts in and around the Afghan capital following a city centre car bombing on September 5 that killed 30 people.
On the same day President Hamid Karzai survived an assassination attempt in the southern city of Kandahar.
The car bomb and a number of smaller bomb attacks preceding it have prompted fears that security in both the capital and outlying provinces is deteriorating.
Last Saturday nine sticks of dynamite were found on a tanker fully-loaded with aviation fuel bound for a nearby US air base.
ISAF has said two Pakistani drivers are in custody pending further investigations
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