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Good Relations With Locals Helping Troops Find Weapons
Thursday, October 24, 2002
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

"The important thing is this transition from finding them because of military sweeps to finding them with very small numbers of U.S. forces because local Afghans are literally coming up and alerting the coalition forces ... to the locations."

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
The way coalition military forces find illegal weapons in Afghanistan has evolved over the course of operations there, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.

"In the beginning, they were found during military sweeps. Somewhat later, they were located during small attacks on enemy concentrations or through liaisons with regional leaders," Rumsfeld said of the roughly 475 weapons caches found in Afghanistan.

"Most recently, as the coalition forces develop relationships with people in Afghanistan and have been physically present in areas, the overwhelming majority of the information has come from tips by local Afghans," Rumsfeld said.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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