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Local Police Turn In Weapons Cache in Eastern Afghanistan

American Forces Press Service

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, May 21, 2005 – Local police turned in a large cache of unstable ammunition to members of the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, near Ghazni, Afghanistan, on May 19, coalition officials announced today.

"These munitions are incredibly dangerous and volatile," said Master Sgt. Albert Schneider, the noncommissioned officer in charge of Combined Joint Task Force 76's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team. "When they are stored in non-climate-controlled environments and they are not properly handled, they can pose a huge risk to nearby communities."

Schneider also said such items can be used in constructing improvised explosive devices, which he called "indiscriminate killers."

"That police and Afghan (civilians) are turning these items into us is not surprising," he said. "They realize the dangers (such items) represent."

The cache, which consisted of more then 450 rocket-propelled grenades and 36 recoilless-rifle rounds, was determined to be unstable and will be transported to a safe location for destruction by EOD personnel.

(From a Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news release.)