Attackers rocket eastern city in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Attackers rocketed an eastern Afghan town on Monday, one day after authorities in the same area seized more than 150 rockets they said were destined for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

In the capital, Kabul, early indications pointed to mechanical failure as the cause of a weekend helicopter crash that killed seven German soldiers, a peacekeeping spokesman said. German government investigators studying the crash hauled away the last of the wreckage of the Sikorsky CH-53, hoping to find more clues.

The rocket attack near Jalalabad airport came close to an Afghan army garrison, but did not cause any damage or injuries, police said.

Security forces seized 168 BM-12 rockets and an anti-tank mine there Sunday. The weapons were destined for Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives, said Mohammed Mustafa, commander of the town's 14th brigade.

The rockets were found in a truck after soldiers chased the vehicle for several miles down a dirt road leading toward Tora Bora, scene of some of the heaviest U.S. bombing last year. The men fled, leaving their truck behind, Mustafa said. No arrests were made.

In Farmada, about 10 miles south of Jalalabad, authorities found another 10 BM-12 rockets Sunday in an abandoned vehicle. Farmada was the launch site of the rocket attack on Jalalabad.

The wreckage from Saturday's helicopter crash was taken to a peacekeeping base in Kabul to be examined by a team of German experts.

"We believe it was a technical problem. There are no indications yet that it was anything else," Lt. Col. Paul Weber, a spokesman for the German peacekeepers, told The Associated Press.

Weber said the bodies would be returned to Germany by Christmas.

In Berlin, a Defense Ministry spokesman speaking on customary condition of anonymity said a possible defect in the drive mechanism of the main rotor was being investigated.

Lt. Col. Andreas Steffan, another spokesman, said the probe may take several weeks.

At Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military said a group of unidentified attackers involved in a weekend gunfight that killed U.S. Paratrooper Sgt. Steven Checo, 22, later fired six rockets at an American base in eastern Afghanistan.

No casualties were reported in Saturday's rocket attacks at Shkhin, a small town in Paktika province on the eastern border with Pakistan.

At least one enemy fighter was killed and another was wounded in the gunbattle. Up to nine attackers carrying AK-47 assault rifles fled into Pakistan after the exchange of fire.

About 8,000 American troops are deployed across the mountainous nation, mostly along the eastern border with Pakistan.

Rockets, many Chinese-made and connected to crude water timers, have been fired frequently at U.S. forces in the east. The rockets are difficult to aim and rarely cause casualties.

In Kabul, peacekeepers blew up a large cache of unexploded ordnance northeast of the city in a routine, controlled blast shook windows and doors in the city.