Officials: Soviet-Era Caches, Not Iran, Arming Taliban

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan - While United States officials accuse Iran ofarming a resurgent Taliban, officials here say the weapons are actually partof vast caches left behind by the Soviet army that fought a nine-year war inAfghanistan before withdrawing in 1988. --- Ustad Basir Arifi, secretary for the Disarmament of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG)program in northern Afghanistan, told IPS that weapons abandoned by the SovietUnion there are now being moved by professional smugglers to the southern provinceswhere the Taliban Islamist movement has its stronghold.