KABUL, Afghanistan?In a joint operation with Afghan police, international peacekeepers seized a cache of 151 Chinese-made rockets, the same kind fired at the security force over the weekend, a peacekeeping spokesman said Thursday.
In another sweep Wednesday, police killed one man and arrested two others while seizing a large number of weapons, including two American-made Stinger anti aircraft missiles, the government’s Bakhtar news agency said.
Spokesmen for the peacekeepers confirmed a second raid but had no information on any casualties or arrests?or whether any Stingers were found. Flight Lt. Joel Fall said about 400 Afghan security forces searched several districts of Kabul house to house and seized grenades, fuses, ammunition and anti-personnel mines.
The Chinese-made 107mm rockets were found Wednesday on a road that runs north from Kabul to Bagram, where U.S. and British troops are based, Fall said
It was unclear whether the rockets were to be used against the International Security Assistance Force, as the peacekeepers are known, but Fall called the find “significant” and said the weapons would be destroyed.
Two missiles of the same type were fired Sunday on an ISAF compound in Kabul housing German and Danish peacekeepers. There were no casualties.
Peacekeepers have been targeted in shooting incidents before, but never by rockets. Peacekeepers have said they believed disgruntled and unpaid northern alliance soldiers or common criminals were behind some of the attacks.
The 18-nation, 4,500 member peacekeeping force is responsible for maintaining security in Kabul.
On Wednesday, authorities said they had arrested five suspects in connection with the Sunday rocket attack. The five men lived in a neighborhood in eastern Kabul where police found four other Chinese-made rockets aimed at peacekeepers after the Sunday attack.
In other developments Thursday:
U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said Shah Sayed, an Afghan working for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, was murdered Wednesday by three assailants who entered his home.
De Almeida e Silva read a statement from the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, who condemned the killing as part of a “disturbing pattern” of attacks on humanitarian workers in northern Afghanistan.
The United Nations said a U.N. team sent to investigate mass graves in the central city of Bamiyan found several burial sites and saw four bodies. U.N. officials said there were “strong indications” of other graves in the area and a team of forensic specialists including a German police training team would go to Bamiyan to investigate. The victims were said to be ethnic Hazaras killed by the Taliban.
Fighters loyal to the governor of a province on the Iranian border recaptured territory seized this week by a rival militia, the Pakistan based Afghan Islamic Press reported.
Gov. Abdul Karim Brohi’s forces attacked two areas in Nimroz province on Wednesday, pushing back the troops of rival commander Abdul Jaleel, the agency said. At least seven of Jaleel’s fighters were killed and others wounded, the agency said.
Another large group of British commandos arrived at Bagram air base. The 120 Royal Marines are part of a contingent that is expected to number about 1,700 by the end of the month.
They are preparing for what is expected to be a long summer of operations against Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives.