Pubdate: Mon, 26 Jun 2006
Source: U.S. News & World Report (US)
Section: The World
Copyright: 2006 U.S. News & World Report
Contact:  http://www.usnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/464
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

PUSHING BACK AGAINST THE TALIBAN

With the Taliban raising the tempo of its attacks, U.S. forces in 
Afghanistan last week launched Operation Mountain Thrust, billed as 
the largest offensive since 2001, against militant strongholds in the 
southeastern provinces of Helmand, Uruzgan, Kandahar, and Zabul. 
Taking part: about 2,300 U.S. conventional and special forces, along 
with 3,300 troops from Britain, 2,200 troops from Canada, about 3,500 
Afghan soldiers, and coalition air support. Aid and development 
programs, such as building roads and clinics, have lagged in many 
parts of the country because of the lack of security. But there is 
another factor that undermines Afghan stability--a resurgence in the 
production of opium, the raw material for heroin, as farmers defy a 
Karzai government ban. In impoverished Helmand province, for 
instance, opium poppy cultivation is up 50 percent from last year. 
The poppy crop, which accounts for about half of the total local 
income, finances drug traffickers, corrupt government officials, and 
the resurgent Taliban.
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