Allies Uncover Cache of Bomb Materials in Afghanistan

[Elmore Furth]

Source: New York Times

Published: November 10, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — With fertilizer bombs now the most lethal weapons used against American and NATO soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the bomb-making operation in Kandahar was something close to astonishing.

In a pair of raids on Sunday, Afghan police officers and American soldiers discovered a half-million pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that is used in the overwhelming majority of homemade bombs here. About 2,000 bomb-making devices like timers and triggers were also found, and 15 Afghans were detained.

With a typical homemade bomb weighing no more than 60 pounds, the seizure of that much fertilizer — more than 10 tractor-trailer loads — removed potentially thousands of bombs from the streets and trails of southern Afghanistan, officials said.

“You can turn a bag of ammonium nitrate into a bomb in a matter of hours,” said Col. Mark Lee, who leads NATO’s effort to stop the bomb makers in southern Afghanistan. “This is a great first step.”




Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/asia/11afghan.html

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The Afghan resistance is really serious about killing Americans.

[paulsby]

1. true dat

they are neglecting their vegetable gardens by diverting all this fertilizer

[mattvermont]

2. poppies

Oh dear, what will the poppy harvest look like? The CIA is gonna need to find a brand new bag.

[wordpix]

3. there's a civil war going on there, so it's not just Americans they want to kill

[Igel]

4. You can still buy it in the US?

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/terror-sting-video-highlights-bomb-threat/story?id=8881663

(I used to love the stuff as a kid. Then again, I had a nifty vegetable garden and that was my fertilizer of choice. Cheap, easy to apply, and I could take my change to the local hardware store and have it converted to fertlizer. It was in a big bag and they'd just scoop out the number of lbs and ounces I had the money for.)