Pubdate: Wed, 25 Oct 2006
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2006 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: John Moore
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/afghanistan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/opium
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

AFGHAN CIVILIANS CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE

KABUL - NATO-led troops killed 38 suspected insurgents in two
separate confrontations in southern Afghanistan, and western troops
and Afghan police elsewhere seized over nine tonnes of marijuana from
a truck, officials said Wednesday.

The fighting in Kandahar's Zhari and Panjwaii districts on Tuesday
targeted rebels who were attacking the alliance's "development
efforts" in the area, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for NATO's
International Security Assistance Force.

Details on the fighting were not available, nor was the nationality of
the troops involved.

NATO forces, led by Canadian troops, launched a major military
operation in the Panjwaii area in September. The alliance said it
killed more than 500 suspected rebels in that offensive.

NATO-led troops and Afghan police, meanwhile, seized over nine tonnes
of marijuana from a truck in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said
Wednesday.

The truck was stopped near Qalat in Zabul province on a road that
links the southern city of Kandahar to Kabul, an alliance statement
said without providing the exact day when the seizure was made.
Fourpeople in the truck were detained.

In the country's west, U.S. and Afghan troops recovered over 55
kilograms of opium from a car in Farah province, another NATO
statement said Tuesday.

The U.S. soldiers were supporting an Afghan National Army checkpoint
when a car failed to stop, the statement said.

An Afghan soldier noticed a suspicious bag where the spare tire was
supposed to be and alerted the next checkpoint. A search of the
vehicle there netted 55 kilograms of opium. The car's driver and
passenger were detained.

Afghanistan's world-leading opium illicit cultivation rose 59 per cent
this year, according to UN figures released last month.

The record crop yielded 6,100 tonnes of opium, or enough to make 610
tonnes of heroin - outstripping the demand of the world's heroin users
by a third, according to UN figures.

According to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, some 2.9 million
people were involved in growing opium, representing 12.5 per cent of
the total Afghan population, and that revenue from this year's harvest
was predicted to hit over US$3 billion.

Opium cultivation has surged since the ouster of the Taliban in late
2001. The Taliban had enforced an effective ban on poppy growing by
threatening to jail farmers - virtually eradicating the crop in 2000.

But Afghan and western counter-narcotics officials say Taliban-led
militants are now implicated in the drug trade, encouraging poppy
cultivation and using the proceeds to help fund their insurgency.

The UN anti-drug chief also urged the government to crack down on big
traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police officers fuelling
the trade.
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MAP posted-by: Derek