U.S. says can't link Tehran to Afghan arms flow

By Kristin Roberts

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates voiced concern on Monday about a flow of Iranian arms to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan but said he had no information linking Tehran to the supply of weapons.

On his second visit to Afghanistan since taking over the Pentagon in December, Gates met Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who also said there was no evidence Iran supplied the Taliban.

"There have been indications over the past few months (that) weapons are coming in from Iran," Gates told a news conference with Karzai at the national palace in Kabul.

"We do not have any information about whether the government of Iran is supporting this, is behind it, or whether it is smuggling, or exactly what is behind it."

"But there clearly is evidence that some weapons are coming into Afghanistan destined for the Taliban, but perhaps also for criminal elements involved in the drug trafficking coming from Iran," he added.

U.S. officials accuse Iran of meddling in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon's top general said on Sunday that Iranian-made weapons had been found inside Afghanistan.

Gates' one-day visit to Afghanistan was aimed at assessing coordination within the U.S.-led coalition to ensure Afghanistan does not spiral into the kind of violence seen in Iraq.

He met Karzai and commanders in Afghanistan and viewed a commando training facility for Afghan soldiers. The former CIA director told Afghan officers during the visit that he remembered aiding anti-Soviet Afghan fighters in the area in the 1980s.