British Special Forces in Afghanistan have seized a cache of 48 powerful Iranian rockets in an ambush from Taliban fighters. The discovery adds strong evidence of increasing support from Iran to the Taliban.
The cache of 48 rockets was hidden in three trucks and was seized after a fierce fire fight which left several insurgents dead in the remote southern province of Nimroz, on the Iran border, last month, following an intelligence tip- off.
The 122mm rockets, which were seized with 1000 rounds of rifle ammunition and 49 rocket mortars and fuses, have twice the range and twice the blast radius of the 107mm missiles used previously by the Taliban.
The rockets, which have an 80ft blast area, were analysed last week by UK specialists.
Their ID marks had been deliberately removed but the experts found they were identical to Iranian-built rockets seized in Iraq in 2007, British newspaper, The Sun, reports.
NATO has revealed that there have been more than 1,600 anti-Taliban operations in the last month, with 1,800 insurgents captured, 500 killed and 1,005 arms caches uncovered.
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