Gates: Taliban Getting Iranian Weapons

[Terri]

By ROBERT BURNS
Associated Press
June 5, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that Iranian weapons are falling into the hands of anti-government Taliban fighters but he stopped short of blaming Tehran. Afghan President Hamid Karzai seemed to dismiss the matter.

At a news conference at the presidential palace, Gates offered possible explanations for the flow of weapons from Iran to this war-scarred country, including smuggling. He mentioned no specific weapons, but NATO officials recently cited the discovery in Kabul of an armor-piercing roadside bomb, the same type U.S. officials have long complained are entering Iraq from Iran.

''There have been indications over the past few months of weapons coming in from Iran,'' Gates told reporters with Karzai at his side. ''We do not have any information about whether the government of Iran is supporting this, is behind it, or whether it's smuggling.''

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