WASHINGTON (AFP)--Afghan security forces found a cache of weapons manufactured in Iran, but it is uknown whether the arms indicate an effort by Iran to aid insurgents, the Pentagon said Thursday. The weapons seized last month in western Herat province included rockets, firing devices for bombs and powerful armor-piercing explosives known as explosively-formed penetrators (EFPs), said the Defense Department.
"They arrested two individuals at the time affiliated with this particular weapons cache," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.
It is unclear when the weapons were brought into Afghanistan and whether the Iranian government played a role in shipping the arms, Whitman said.
It was the first discovery of a cache of Iranian-manufactured weapons in Afghanistan since 2007, the spokesman said.
The weapons cache is "troubling," given that improvised explosives are the main cause of casualties among U.S. and other international forces, he said.
Washington has long charged Iran with sending arms to insurgents in Afghanistan but on a fairly small scale.
Asked if the U.S. administration had changed its view about Iran's activities in Afghanistan, Whitman said: "I think the view remains the same in that it continues to play a destablizing role in the region."
In June, Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran of playing a "double game" in Afghanistan, professing to want good ties with Kabul while undermining efforts led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to provide security.
"They are an important trading partner for Afghanistan. They profess to have warm relations with the Afghan government," Gates said.
"At the same time, they're sending in a relatively modest level of weapons and capabilities to attack ISAF (NATO's International Security Assistance Force) and coalition forces."
Shiite Iran had hostile relations with the Sunni Muslim Taliban regime while the Taliban held power between 1996 and 2001.
Despite decades of animosity, Iran and the United States cooperated on Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and during the subsequent U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
However their collaboration was short-lived, ending in 2003 after then- President George W. Bush branded Iran part of an "axis of evil."