KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government has banned ammonium nitrate fertilizer — a chemical used in more than 90% of the homemade explosives that are the biggest killer of NATO troops in Afghanistan, according to US think-tank Globalsecurity.com. President Hamid Karzai issued the decree banning the use, production, storage, purchase or sale of ammonium nitrate on the recommendation of Afghan intelligence services and the ministries of agriculture and interior, according to a government statement, which gives farmers one month to turn in their stocks or face prosecution.
For years, the Afghan government had been discouraging farmers from using the fertilizer for environmental reasons,reports The Chronicle Herald. Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces in Baghdad arrested 25 people and seized 250 litres of ammonium nitrate. NATO troops have seized tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in raids over the last five months in southern Afghanistan. The government believes the new ban will make it more difficult for the Taliban to replenish supplies of ammonium nitrate. Mir Dad Panjshiri, an official in the Afghan Agriculture Ministry, said the government had been discouraging the use of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for years because urea fertilizer is better suited to Afghan soils. He said businessmen began importing ammonium nitrate fertilizer in large amounts last year, mostly from Central Asia and Pakistan.
Many countries, including Germany, Colombia, Ireland, the Philippines and China, have banned ammonium nitrate fertilizer, and most US states regulate its use after the chemical was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, and the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali in which 202 people died. Such “fertilizer bombs” have also been used in Iraq in attacks against government security forces. The US military said that seven 208-litre drums of ammonium nitrate were recovered after a truck bomb only partially detonated during an attack the day before at an Iraqi army checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul. The US Department of Homeland Security requires that businesses that store certain dangerous or combustible chemicals — including ammonium nitrate — provide regular reports on the security of those materials.