Troops seize 250 tons of bombmaking material in Afghanistan

KABUL -- International troops and Afghan police seized 250 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer -- enough to make up to a couple of hundred roadside bombs, the Taliban's most lethal weapon in what has been the deadliest year of the war, NATO announced 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.

NATO officials hoped Sunday's raid in the southern city of Kandahar would hurt Taliban insurgents, 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.

The seizure included enough fertilizer to make dozens to a couple of hundred roadside bombs, said John Pike, director of the military think tank Globalsecurity.org.

The insurgents have been successful manufacturing homemade bombs from materials such as fertilizer, which is easily available in agricultural areas of the south. In a country awash in weapons after 30 years of war, the Taliban also appears to have little trouble obtaining 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 it even needs to shore up its own stockpiles, Pike said. "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."

The footage of insurgents handling weapons, including antipersonnel mines with U.S. markings on them, was broadcast Tuesday on al-Jazeera television.

Insurgents could employ the ammunition against U.S. and Afghan forces, though the amount shown was not extensive. Still, Taliban propagandists will no doubt use the footage to encourage their supporters.

The insurgents said the weapons were from remote outposts in Nurestan province that were abandoned after the battle that killed eight Americans, according to al-Jazeera.

-- Associated Press