3-Week Toll Worst Since Taliban's Fall KABUL, Afghanistan -- The deadliest three weeks of violence since the fall of the Taliban has left more than 500 people dead, the U.S.-led coalition said Saturday. The toll included at least 44 deaths last week. Meanwhile, a top Afghan intelligence agent narrowly survived a bomb attack on his convoy that killed three other people near the capital, Kabul. Fighting elsewhere killed six insurgents and three police on Saturday, officials said. Much of the recent Taliban fighting is believed to be funded by the country's $2.8 billion trade in opium and heroin - about 90 percent of the world's supply. [continues 253 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The deadliest three weeks of violence since the fall of the Taliban has left more than 500 people dead, the U.S-led coalition said Saturday. The toll included at least 44 deaths last week. Meanwhile, a top Afghan intelligence agent narrowly survived a bomb attack on his convoy that killed three other people near the capital, Kabul. Fighting elsewhere killed six insurgents and three police on Saturday, officials said. Much of the recent Taliban fighting is believed funded by the country's $2.8 billion trade in opium and heroin -- about 90 percent of the world's supply. [continues 254 words]
Daily Violence Raises Fears Of A Resurgence Of The Taliban The worst three weeks of violence since the fall of the Taliban have left more than 500 people dead, the U.S.-led coalition said Saturday. Fighting on Saturday killed six insurgents and three police, officials said. Late Friday, a top Afghan intelligence agent narrowly survived a bomb attack on his convoy that killed three other people near the capital, Kabul. Lehigh Valley Local Links Mobile News | Subscribe Online | Order Reprints Much of the recent Taliban fighting is believed funded by the country's $2.8 billion trade in opium and heroin -- about 90 percent of the world's supply. [continues 258 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's Taliban-led insurgency is likely to worsen this year as new NATO troops replace battle-hardened American forces in some areas and the government pushes ahead with an aggressive anti-drug campaign, a senior U.S. envoy said. The warning by Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, comes after an uptick in attacks in recent weeks as spring weather melts snow on high mountain passes the rebels use. Last year was the deadliest for rebel violence since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. Some 1,600 people, including 91 U.S. troops, were killed. That was more than double the total in 2004. [continues 456 words]
LASHKARGAH, Afghanistan - Afghanistan will encourage its powerful drug lords to invest their illegally earned profits in the war-shattered country, according to the governor of the nation's top opium-growing region. The offer comes amid warnings of another bumper poppy crop that will fuel a booming narcotics trade, which already accounts for 35 percent of the impoverished country's income. "We as a government will provide them the opportunity to use their money for the national benefit," Helmand Gov. Mohammed Daud said during a trip to the region this week by U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann. [continues 744 words]
Drug Czar: World 'Very Slow' To Take on Poppy Farming Tied to Taliban KABUL, Afghanistan - The international community has been "very slow" to combat Afghanistan's booming trade in opium and heroin, while the Taliban has forced farmers to plant poppies to fund the rebel insurgency, the country's top anti-drug official said Monday. The anti-drug czar, Gen. Mohammed Daud Daud, promised a crackdown on drug smugglers in 2006. Last year's bumper opium crop -- enough to make about 450 tons of heroin -- sparked warnings the country is fast becoming a "narco-state" four years after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. [continues 331 words]
From women in burqas in former Taliban strongholds to impoverished desert nomads, Afghans embraced the chance to vote in the final formal step toward democracy. But the country still faces a myriad of threats, from a reinvigorated insurgency to rampant drug production and power-hungry warlords. Turnout for Sunday's legislative elections was lower than many hoped, taking a little of the luster off the historic day. Still, the rebels' failure to make good on threats to subvert the vote was a major boost to efforts to bring peace nearly four years after U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban from power. [continues 371 words]
Crackdown On Growing Results In Just 2 Percent Drop KABUL, Afghanistan - Bumper growing conditions meant that Afghanistan's opium production remained almost unchanged this year even though a crackdown on poppy farming cut the land under cultivation by 21 percent, the U.N. anti-drug chief said Monday. Antonio Maria Costa warned it could take another 20 years to eradicate opium from the impoverished country - despite the recent injection of hundreds of millions in foreign aid to fight the world's biggest drug industry. [continues 504 words]
Afghan Opium Production Down Just 2 Percent Despite Crackdown On Growing, U.N. Says KABUL, Afghanistan - Bumper growing conditions meant that Afghanistan's opium production remained almost unchanged this year even though a crackdown on poppy farming cut the land under cultivation by 21 percent, the U.N. anti-drug chief said Monday. Antonio Maria Costa warned it could take another 20 years to eradicate opium from the impoverished country - despite the recent injection of hundreds of millions in foreign aid to fight the world's biggest drug industry. [continues 329 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Bumper growing conditions meant that Afghanistan's opium production remained almost unchanged this year even though a crackdown on poppy farming cut the land under cultivation by 21 percent, the U.N. anti-drug chief said Monday. Antonio Maria Costa warned it could take another 20 years to eradicate opium from the impoverished country -- despite the recent injection of hundreds of millions in foreign aid to fight the world's biggest drug industry. The narcotics trade is blamed for fighting in some poppy-growing areas and is suspected to be partially funding an insurgency by Taliban-led rebels that has killed more than 1,100 people in the past six months. It has also sparked warnings the country is fast becoming a "narco-state" less than four years after the U.S.-led invasion. [continues 444 words]
A CAMPAIGN to eradicate poppy farming for heroin in Afghanistan has been ineffective partly because President Hamid Karzai "has been unwilling to assert strong leadership", according to a leaked memo by US diplomats. A message sent earlier this month from the US embassy in Kabul, the Afghan capital, said that provincial officials and village elders had impeded destruction of significant poppy acreage and that top Afghan officials, including Mr Karzai, had done little to overcome that resistance. The claims were angrily denied by the Afghan leader, who claimed that the international community had not done enough to help his country. [continues 327 words]
