BAGRAM AIR BASE, April 18: Romanian soldiers have uncovered thousands of rockets and more than a million rounds of ammunition in the largest weapons cache ever discovered by US-led forces in Afghanistan, the US military said on Friday.

The Romanian infantry uncovered three caches and two caves full of weapons on Wednesday and Thursday during “Operation Carpathian Lightning” near Qalat, capital of southern Zabul province, US military spokesman Colonel Roger King told reporters.

The haul included 3,000 107mm rockets, 250,000 rounds of 12.7mm machinegun ammunition, about one million rounds of small arms ammunition and other ammunition and mines, “making it the largest cache found to date by the coalition forces in Afghanistan”, he said.

The operation was the third for the Romanian forces, who usually carry out “force protection” for the ISAF base in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, Roger King said.

An Italian tourist was ambushed and shot dead near Qalat last week in an attack local officials blamed on Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. He was the fourth foreigner to be killed in Afghanistan in the past three weeks and the second civilian.

Afghan forces had earlier this week discovered a huge arms cache in caves near Maimana.

“About 18 caves were full of ammunition and weapons — small arms and heavy weapons. Each cave was 15 metres by five metres by four metres high,” Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said.—AFP