Afghan warlord's arsenal found by US troops

American troops in Afghanistan have found two warehouses filled with a staggering arsenal believed to belong to a maverick Afghan commander, the military said today.

The smaller of the two caches found yesterday filled 35 trucks and ranged from machine guns to 120mm rockets and mortar rounds, Colonel Roger King said. Troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division were still counting the larger find.

The warehouses were found in the south-eastern city of Khost after Afghan officials tipped off US forces.

Col King said the weapons were believed to belong to Bacha Khan Zardran, a warlord who helped defeat the Taliban, but who later tried to seize control of the Khost region over the wishes of the central Afghan government. Last month, he was driven from Khost by forces allied with the government.

Some of Zardran’s soldiers are still fighting with the United States against remnants of the Taliban and al Qaida in eastern Afghanistan. Col King was unsure how long the weapons had been stored in the warehouses.

It also wasn’t clear where Zardran got all these weapons. Until his falling out with the central government, Zardran was a key US ally and one of the first to join US soldiers last December to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida.

During the Taliban’s rule, Zardran lived in Pakistan, banished from his homeland by the hardline militia and threatened with arrest if he returned.

Zardran opposed the Taliban’s harsh interpretation of Islam.

The arsenal “is significant in that it’s got ammunition and the weapons systems that go with it, so it is more or less complete,” King said.

King said the weapons and ammunition were in good condition, and that US forces would “more than likely” give some of the 18,450 82mm mortar rounds, seven 82mm mortars, 1,800 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and 30 heavy machine guns to fighters allied to local warlords. An Afghan commander, Lodin, controls the area.

Critics say handing over weapons to local warlords fortifies them at a time when the United States is trying to strengthen President Hamid Karzai’s central government.