Afghan National Police (ANP) arrested three men suspected of facilitating improvised explosive device (IED) operations near the Pakistan border in eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, a Coalition statement said Saturday.
During a night patrol on Feb. 6 in Bermel district of Paktika province, the ANP, assisted by the U.S.-led Coalition forces, searched a vehicle and found two rocket-propelled grenades, two mortars and blasting caps concealed in hidden compartments, it said.
Acting upon information from a villager, the ANP, according to the statement, on the same day also found three IEDs, each consisting of a 107 mm rocket and an anti-tank mine near a bridge in Kakakhel, a local village.
"The munitions were covered by dirt and placed in the roadway near a family home," the statement said, adding that the devices were set to explode and could have killed anyone passing along that portion of the roadway.
ANP officers evacuated residents living near the IED, and then destroyed the device, making the roadway safe for travelers in the area, it added.
An over 50,000-strong foreign force, separately under the flag of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the U.S.-led Coalition forces, are deployed in war-torn Afghanistan, fighting militants and ensuring security.
Rising militancy-related violence killed over 6,000 people in the post-Taliban nation last year and the Taliban have vowed to launch more attacks in 2008.
Source: Xinhua
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