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 motaman
old hand
Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 6,047
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 US, Afghan troops seize tonnes of opium, kill 17 Taliban 
#11206922 - 10/08/09 10:37 AM (14 years, 6 months ago) |
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US, Afghan troops seize tonnes of opium, kill 17 Taliban
Thu Oct 8, 2:11 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – US and Afghan forces seized 50 tonnes of opium and killed 17 Taliban on Wednesday, the defence ministry said, as US President Barack Obama mulled his options for the increasingly war-torn country.
The drug haul and insurgent deaths came in joint action between American and Afghan troops in the troubled south of the country, and also saw 1.8 tonnes of heroin seized, along with several Taliban.
It was one of the largest drug seizures in recent memory, worth five million dollars, Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman, told AFP.
In the five-hour operation that began at 11:00 am (0630 GMT), the soldiers dropped from helicopters into the Kajaki district of Helmand province, source of most of the world's heroin, the spokesman said.
"We seized and destroyed 30 tonnes of fertiliser, 1,000 boxes of AK-47 and TK machinegun bullets and other weapons," he said, adding that a factory for making remote-controlled bombs was also destroyed.
"Seventeen Taliban were killed, three were arrested alive," he said.
"The joint forces also destroyed a heroin-making factory," he said, adding that the joint forces suffered no casualties.
He said the fertiliser was of a type used to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the main weapon in the Taliban arsenal and the cause of a large proportion of deaths among forces under US and NATO command.
Over 400 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year, more than in the whole of 2008.
A source close to the defence ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that 16 boxes of C4 explosive made in Iran had also been seized in the operation.
Helmand province is one of the main trouble spots in Afghanistan's intensifying insurgency and the heroin produced there helps fund the Taliban supply of weaponry.
Destitute Afghanistan produces around 90 percent of the world's opium, used to make heroin sold on the streets of Europe and central Asia.
The UN puts the potential export value of Afghan narcotics at about 3.4 billion dollars a year and Afghan officials have said drug profits provide the Taliban with as much as 100 million dollars a year.
The Taliban were ousted from power in a US-led invasion eight years ago but their insurgency's bloody revival has led to in-depth discussions among Kabul's Western backers concerned about rising foreign troop deaths.
Obama Wednesday was to gather top security, military and political advisors in the secure White House Situation Room for a third meeting on Afghan policy as he mulls whether to pitch thousands more troops into the war.
On Tuesday, the president told lawmakers he had no intention of reducing the US military footprint in Afghanistan, which will reach 68,000 troops by the end of this year, an administration official said on condition of anonymity.
Now, the choice may lie somewhere between a request by war commander General Stanley McChrystal for 40,000 more troops for a full-scale anti-insurgency strategy or a narrower attempt to target Al-Qaeda and train the Afghan army.
Obama and top advisors could discuss that request for more troops as soon as Friday, the White House said.
It comes amid rising public anxiety over the war caused by a spike in US troop deaths and a Taliban insurgency that is growing in ferocity, in what is now one of the longest US military operations on record.
Separately, a Spanish soldier was killed and five others wounded on Wednesday in a landmine explosion in western Afghanistan, the Spanish defence ministry in Madrid said.
It was the seventh Spanish fatality in an attack in Afghanistan since 2002, and the first since November last year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091008/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrest_20091008061228
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http://heffter.org
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HybridprX
Biodegrader of coir
Registered: 01/29/08
Posts: 2,588
Loc: Canada 
Last seen: 6 years, 7 months
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Re: US, Afghan troops seize tonnes of opium, kill 17 Taliban [Re: motaman]
#11207278 - 10/08/09 11:46 AM (14 years, 6 months ago) |
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Kill them all
Not only are they barbarians but they help fuck up our communities/friends/families by exporting their bullshit.
It's funny when theres a article posted about where the source of heroine comes from that the junkie wastes of life on here have nothing to say.
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dondoodle
Stranger
Registered: 06/29/09
Posts: 407
Last seen: 11 years, 3 months
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Re: US, Afghan troops seize tonnes of opium, kill 17 Taliban [Re: HybridprX]
#11209616 - 10/08/09 05:48 PM (14 years, 6 months ago) |
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The USAers are stealing peoples property (drugs) and killing them for daring to challenge US drug cartels(PHarMA)
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End American imperialism and colonization around the world and among the people conquered within the domestic empire.
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justAdream
Stranger
Registered: 09/28/08
Posts: 613
Loc: northern , CO
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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Re: US, Afghan troops seize tonnes of opium, kill 17 Taliban [Re: dondoodle]
#11210664 - 10/08/09 08:19 PM (14 years, 6 months ago) |
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thats suck not only did 17 ppl die but thats 1.8 tons of heroin i aint ever going to see
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cloning tek
 
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honeybaked
Stranger
Registered: 09/29/09
Posts: 3
Last seen: 14 years, 6 months
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Re: US, Afghan troops seize tonnes of opium, kill 17 Taliban [Re: justAdream]
#11212600 - 10/09/09 01:08 AM (14 years, 6 months ago) |
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Im pretty sure that it will still end up in the u.s.
IRAQ-War For Oil
AFGANISTAN-War on FOR Drugs???????????
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snoot
look alive ∞
Registered: 01/30/05
Posts: 9,642
Loc: 45º parallel 
Last seen: 14 days, 13 hours
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Re: US, Afghan troops seize tonnes of opium, kill 17 Taliban [Re: honeybaked]
#11214820 - 10/09/09 11:50 AM (14 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
"We seized and destroyed 30 tonnes of fertiliser, 1,000 boxes of AK-47 and TK machinegun bullets and other weapons," he said, adding that a factory for making remote-controlled bombs was also destroyed.
BUT WE KEPT ALL THE OPIUM AND WE'RE NOW HIGH AS FUCK
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∞
I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity.
- Simone de Beauvoir -
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