Afghans in New Push to Collect Stingers
Authorities are launching a new push to collect U.S.-made Stinger missiles distributed to Afghans fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s in an effort to keep the weapons from terrorists and governments — including Iran, an Afghan official said Sunday. The Afghan intelligence service is offering to buy the anti-aircraft missiles for an undisclosed sum, taking up a CIA program to recover weapons given to Islamic fundamentalists who battled the Soviets alongside Osama bin Laden in the 1980s. Hussein Fakhri, a senior intelligence official, confirmed a report of the offer on Afghan state television but would not elaborate. Full Story