NATO peacekeepers find huge Afghan weapons cache

KABUL, Mar 14 (Reuters) NATO peacekeepers in Afghanistan have found the biggest weapons cache in recent years including 80 tonnes of TNT and 25,000 landmines, a NATO force spokeswoman said today.

The cache was handed over to authorities in Sheberghan, in the Afghan north, under a drive to disarm illegal armed groups, said a spokeswoman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force, Commander Sue Eagles.

The weapons were stored underground in old Soviet bunkers.

An initial survey indicated one was full of detonators, two contained 80 tonnes of Russian TNT, while another held 15,000 anti-personnel mines and 10,000 anti-tank mines. A fifth bunker was still being explored.

Eagles said it was not clear who the weapons had belonged to and an assesment of the haul was still being done. Various factional forces have controlled Sheberghan over years of conflict.

''The important thing is that they will now be destroyed and not get into the wrong hands,'' she said.

Taliban insurgents and their militant allies are fighting to expel foreign forces and overthrow the Western-backed government, but they are mainly active in the south and east of the country.

Afghanistan is rife with weapons but the government has launched drives to disarm various factional forces and take their weapons out of circulation.

REUTERS SI BST1928