KABUL — Canadian soldiers collected and destroyed dozens of explosives on a mountainside just outside the capital of Afghanistan on Monday after discovering children carrying mortars like prized toys.

On a routine patrol near Kabul, military engineers were hoping to pick up one or two explosives believed to be in a dried riverbed.

However, after two solid days of rain, water was flowing in the river, making it impossible to search for munitions.

Just as the soldiers were preparing to move on to their next stop, a few children began bringing them mortar shells.

One by one, almost as if it were a game, the smiling children handed the soldiers the unused ordnance.

"Where did you find those?" asked Sgt. Mike Thompson through an interpreter.

The answer led the Canadians to a nearby mountain, where dozens of mortars and missiles were strewn among hundreds of empty, rusting, green metal ammunition containers below an abandoned bunker.

Thompson, no stranger to munitions discoveries in Kabul since Canadian troops were deployed to Afghanistan during the summer, appeared amazed at the sheer number of weapons.

"It's just like picking blueberries," said Thompson, as he and other soldiers gathered the highly volatile devices.

"The stuff is just scattered everywhere. There's another one a kid just found."

Estimates of the number of unexploded ordnance, or UXOs, in and around Kabul range in the tens of thousands and include grenades, mortars, missiles and mines.

Thousands of sites within Kabul city limits have already been marked with signs warning of landmines or have been cleared of the deadly explosives.

One piece of ordnance collected Monday by the 24 Field Squadron members was a 122-mm Russian HE rocket, dug out of a pathway by Master-Cpl. Matt Pronk.

"That's pretty nasty stuff," said Pronk as he lifted the missile into place between sandbags in the back of a Canadian Forces truck.

"There's a piece that's missing from the end of it. Still pretty dangerous."

Once collected, the ordnance was carefully placed in a pile high on the mountainside and destroyed using C4 plastic explosives -- after Thompson made sure local residents were well back.

Earlier in the day, Thompson had the unpleasant task of removing what appeared to be a small, feces-laden bomb from a human waste pit in the middle of a residential neighbourhood.

"Some of the elders, they put it in places like this so the kids don't play with it," he said. "Just makes it a bit disgusting having to fish it out."

Unsure of what he was dealing with, Thompson brought the device back to Camp Julien -- the largest Canadian base in Afghanistan -- for closer examination.