3:00 pm
US Marines have seized weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and mortar bombs hidden in tunnels and under a building less than 300m from their base at Kandahar airport, in southern Afghanistan.
The ammunition and tunnel system were probably linked to a brief, surprise small-arms attack on the Marines' camp last Thursday, when the first plane load of al Qaeda and Taleban prisoners was taking off for interrogation at an American military base in Cuba, military sources said.
The weapons seized by Marines today were found just 274m from the perimeter of their base after a group of six or seven men were spotted in the area on Monday evening, US Captain Daniel Greenwood said.
"We decided to take immediate action," he said.
Light armoured vehicles entered the area, backed up by attack helicopters, and troops found several cave entrances, tunnels as well as crawl spaces, under a building not far from the US positions.
There, within firing range, they found the caches of mortar bomb fuses, mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. The men had disappeared. The ammunition, along with the building, tunnels and cave entrances were blown up, said Greenwood, adding he believed the ammunition and tunnel system were linked to Thursday's small-arms attack.
No US troops were hurt in the probing fire by eight to 14 gunmen armed with AK-47 assault rifles and using flares to illuminate US Marine positions but it was a grim warning that pockets of resistance were still active.
- REUTERS
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Al Qaeda hideout found close to US base in Kandahar
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