Associated Press

Kabul, January 30:

Afghan authorities are launching a new push to collect US-made Stinger missiles left over from the 1980s war against Soviet occupiers, fearing they could end up in the hands of terrorists, an official said today.

The Afghan intelligence service will buy the surface-to-air missiles whether they work or not for an undisclosed sum, state television reported. Hussein Fakhri, a senior intelligence official, confirmed the TV report.

The CIA supplied hundreds of Stingers to mujahideens who used them to devastating effect against Soviet helicopters and transport planes before Moscow pulled its troops out of Afghanistan in 1989. The US spy agency has been trying to buy them back to keep them out of the possession of terrorists.