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Afghanistan

Record drug haul unearthed in Taliban trenches

2008-06-13

THE world's biggest drug bust has been executed by narcotics agents in Afghanistan, who say they uncovered 236 tonnes of hashish hidden in trenches in the south of the country. The massive haul, found in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday, was worth more than $US400 million ($426 million) and would have netted the Taliban about $US14 million in profits, NATO officials said yesterday. It weighed as much as 30 double-decker London buses. "To our knowledge, this was the biggest drug seizure in the world," said Afghanistan's deputy interior minister Abdul Hadi Khalid. He said the drugs were found hidden in multiple trenches and that all 236.8 tonnes were burned in the trenches later the same day. "Whoa! Dewd! Blow some my way!" The previous record was set in Colombia when 81 tonnes of coca were seized, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper said. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime today congratulated Afghan police on the raid. "This is a massive seizure, and a major success for counter-narcotics in Afghanistan," said UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa. "Notorious for being the world's biggest producer of opium, Afghanistan has also become a major source of cannabis resin." Sixteen people, including four Iranians and seven Pakistanis, have been arrested in connection with the stash. Another five tonnes of opium was seized in southern Helmand province over the weekend. Sixteen people, including four Iranians and seven Pakistanis, have been arrested in connection with the stash. Afghanistan's biggest drug problem is not hashish but opium. It produced 9000 tonnes last year, enough to make 93 per cent of the world's heroin supply. But officials have increased warnings that farmers who no longer grow opium poppies because of successful eradication programs have turned their fields to cannabis, the plant used to produce hashish and marijuana, giving the country a second drug problem. Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Hadi Khalid said three men were arrested over the hashish bust. He said 21 of the country's 36 provinces were opium free, but eradication efforts in Kandahar, Helmand, Farah and Uruzgan provinces did not go well this year because of continuing violence. Forty-three members of the country's counter-narcotics police were killed in eradication operations this spring, he said. In nearby Helmand province, the Interior Ministry said police seized 5100kg of opium and arrested 13 drug dealers.

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Afghanistan

Top Taliban commander killed in Afghanistan

2007-04-24

Afghan and NATO forces surrounded around 200 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, possibly including top militants commanders, while US-led coalition forces claimed to have killed a key rebel commander in the country's northeast, officials said on Tuesday. Afghan and NATO forces have surrounded around 200 Taliban fighters, including some senior militant commanders, in a village in southern Uruzgan province, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said. Bashary said the militants came under siege when they gathered for a meeting in Chora district and were warned to surrender or face an attack. He said the surrounded militants included some top Taliban commanders but did not name any. Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Hadi Khalid told parliament on Monday that it was possible that Mullah Dadullah, the top rebel commander for the southern region, could be among the fighters under siege. Dadullah is believed to have been responsible for the recent beheading of an Afghan journalist and his driver. US forces killed Taliban commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani in Helmand province in December. Khalid said that if the militants did not surrender, the joint forces would move forward and capture them. Just don't let them slip away, ok? Meanwhile, Gul Haqparast, a rebel leader who had extensive ties to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former mujahedeen government's prime minister and currently leader of a rebel group, was killed during a US air strike in Laghman province Friday, the US military said in a statement on Tuesday. One of Hek's boys "Coalition sources described Haqparast as a significant regional Taliban leader involved in assassinations, improvised explosive device attacks and assaults on Afghan and Coalition facilities in Laghman and Kapisa provinces," the statement said. In another development, two policemen were killed and five wounded when a remote-controlled bomb blew up their vehicle in Shamelzo district of southern Zabul province on Monday, said Abdul Ghafar Safi, the provincial police chief. UPDATE: Afghan and coalition forces launched an overnight operation late Monday in Bakwa district in western Farah province, said a spokesman for the provincial police chief Baryalai Khan. He said two suspected militants were killed and two wounded, while two police personnel were also wounded, and eight suspected militants arrested in the ongoing operation. Acting on a tip in the volatile southern province of Zabul, Afghan army and NATO troops surrounded Taliban militants Monday evening and asked that they surrender, said regional Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmetullah Raufi. The Taliban opened fire, and the ensuing battle left 11 Taliban dead, but there were no casualties among Afghan or NATO troops, Raufi said. Provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Khan said NATO troops were also involved in the siege, but NATO and the U.S.-led coalition said Tuesday they had no information to support the Afghans' account and denied their troops were involved in such an operation. A Taliban spokesman in the south, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said the Taliban were not trapped and that Dadullah was not in the area.

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