KABUL: Afghan forces have seized some 1,800 kilograms of explosives smuggled into the country through the Iranian border, officials in the western province of Farah said on Sunday.
The explosives were discovered on Thursday in the province which borders Iran. Authorities in southwestern Afghanistan and the US military have often in the past accused Iran of providing arms and cash to Taliban commanders in the region for attacks against government forces and foreign troops stationed in the country. Iran denies any state complicity.
"The discovery was made by the border forces. The explosives were smuggled from Iran’s soil,” Mohibullah Mohib, spokesman for Farah’s governor, told Arab News.
Dadullah Qani, head of Farah’s provincial council said the contraband was "hidden beneath a truck laden with potatoes."
“The explosives have been sent to laboratory for testing,” he told Arab News, adding that it was unclear who sent the shipment from Iran. However, he accused Tehran of providing monetary support to the Taliban to destabilize the southwestern region where the Afghan government has been developing a number of power dams that could deprive Iran of water.
Iran is yet to comment on the latest incident.
Hamayoun Shahidzada, a lawmaker from Herat province, which like Farah also borders Iran, said that “Iran’s interest is intertwined in the region and the news about the dispatch of explosives could be part of Iran’s support to Taliban groups.”
“I do not know about the discovery of the explosives, but there are some Taliban groups who are being protected by Iran,” he told Arab News.
Despite requests, officials at the defense and interior ministries in Kabul as well as a spokesman for US-led foreign forces in the country refused to comment.
Afghan forces seize nearly two tons of explosives smuggled through Iran border
https://arab.news/yjs7d
Afghan forces seize nearly two tons of explosives smuggled through Iran border
- Contraband was hidden in a truck laden with potatoes, head of Farah’s provincial council said
- Afghan authorities accuse Iran of providing arms and cash to Taliban commanders in the region, which Tehran denies
Burkina jihadist attacks on army leave at least 10 dead
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast: Suspected Islamist militants attacked an army unit in northern Burkina Faso Sunday, the latest in a series of alleged jihadist attacks that have killed at least 10 people in four days, security sources told AFP.
The west African country, ruled by a military junta since a 2022 coup, has been plagued with violence from militants allied to Al-Qaeda or the Daesh group for more than a decade.
Social media has been awash with speculation that the spate of attacks may have killed dozens of soldiers, but AFP has been unable to independently verify those claims.
The junta, which seized power on the promise to crack down on the violence, has ceased to communicate on jihadist attacks.
On Sunday, militants carried out a major attack on a military detachment in the northern town of Nare, two security sources told AFP.
The previous day, the Burkinabe army’s unit in the northern city of Titao was “targeted by a group of several hundred terrorists,” one of the sources said.
While the source did not give a death toll for either attack, they said part of the military base in Titao had been destroyed.
The interior minister of Ghana, which borders Burkina Faso to the south, said the government had “received disturbing information from Burkina Faso of a truck carrying tomato traders from Ghana which was caught in a terrorist attack in Titao.”
Jihadist ‘coordination’
According to the same security source, another army base in Tandjari, in the east of the country, was also attacked Saturday, and several officers killed.
“This series of attacks is not a coincidence,” the source said. “There seems to be coordination among the jihadists.”
A separate security source told AFP that a “terrorist group attacked the (military) detachment in Bilanga,” in the east of the country, on Thursday.
“Much of the detachment was ransacked,” the source said, giving a toll of “about 10 deaths” among the soldiers and civilian volunteers fighting alongside the army.
A local source confirmed the attack, adding there was damage in the town of Bilanga, and that the assailants had stayed at the scene until the following day.
Despite the junta’s vow to restore security, Burkina Faso remains caught in a spiral of violence.
According to conflict monitor ACLED, the unrest has killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers since 2015 — and more than half of those deaths have come in the past three years.
