Afghan forces seize huge bomb-making cache near Pakistan border

KABUL: Afghan security forces on Sunday seized 156 sacks of ammonium nitrate, widely used in making explosives, from the back of a vegetable truck crossing at the Torkham border crossing, an official said, in one of the biggest such finds.

Intelligence officers found nearly eight tonnes of the chemical, "brought for insurgent activities", hidden under sacks of vegetables on the truck at the Torkham border crossing, at the end of the Khyber Pass, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province said.

Ammonium nitrate is widely used as a fertiliser, but for security reasons, imports into Afghanistan are banned.

The Taliban on Saturday announced a surprise three-day ceasefire over the Muslim Eid holiday this month, their first offer of its kind, days after the government declared an unconditional ceasefire of its own.

The governor of Nangarhar was dismissed last month as part of an administrative shakeup in a region where security has sharply deteriorated.

Officials in Nangarhar said he had failed to tackle endemic corruption in the province, which includes the Torkham post, the main crossing point into Pakistan for both goods and people as well as major smuggling routes.

Foreign air strikes targeted two Islamic State hideouts in the province, killing six insurgents, an Afghan military official said on Sunday. He did not say when the attack took place.