Nato seize bomb-making materials in Afghanistan

International troops and Afghan police seized 250 tons of ammonium nitrate fertiliser – enough to make hundreds of roadside bombs, the Taliban’s most lethal weapon in what has been the deadliest year of the war.

Separately, video footage emerged yesterday of insurgents brandishing what appears to be limited stocks of US ammunition in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan where eight Americans died in a battle last month.

Sunday’s raids in the southern city of Kandahar appeared to net one of the largest hauls of the war. Nato officials hoped the fertiliser seizure would hurt Taliban militants, whose home-made bombs have become the biggest killer of US and allied troops.

Acting on a tip, international forces and Afghan police discovered 1,000 100-pound bags of ammonium nitrate fertiliser and 5,000 parts for roadside bombs in a warehouse, the military said. After the initial find, an additional 4,000 100-bags of fertiliser were found in a nearby compound. The joint forces also made 15 arrests.

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

The footage of insurgents handling weapons, including anti-personnel mines with US markings on them, was broadcast Tuesday on Al-Jazeera.

The insurgents claimed the weapons were from remote outposts in Nuristan province that were abandoned after the battle that killed eight Americans, according to Al-Jazeera.

Tech Sgt Angela Eggman, a Nato spokeswoman, said it wasn’t clear from the video where or when insurgents obtained the items.

US forces closed outposts in the mountainous Kamdesh district of Nuristan province in early October.

“Before departing the base, the units removed all sensitive items and accounted for them,” she said.

Nuristan’s provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Qassim Jangulbagh disagreed, saying, “The Americans left ammunition at the base.”

The US destroyed most of the ammunition, but some of it fell into the hands of insurgents, Jangulbagh said.

Farooq Khan, a spokesman for the Afghan National Police in Nuristan province, also said US forces left arms and ammunition when they moved from the area, which he said is now in insurgent hands.

The Pentagon said the outposts in Nuristan were on a list of far-flung bases that US war commanders had decided were not worth keeping. That decision, the Pentagon said, was on the books before the assault – part of plans by top US commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal to shut down such isolated strongholds and focus on more heavily populated areas.