VOA标准英语10月-Afghanistan Welcomes NATO Crackdown on Narcotics
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Afghanistan's government is welcoming the NATO decision to have foreign troops in the country go after the narcotics1 infrastructure2. That is a change from previous tactics when opium3 farmers were primarily targeted. VOA correspondent Steve Herman has details from Kabul.The strategic decision by NATO to attack heroin4 manufacturing labs and drug dealers5 is being welcomed by Afghanistan's government.
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| Humayun Hamidzada |
Presidential spokesman Humayun Hamdizada tells VOA News the government is pleased NATO defense6 ministers decided7 to allow international forces here to target the illicit8 drugs infrastructure, including major smugglers and traffickers.
"In the past the entire counter-narcotics strategies were focused on punishing the farmers to which the Afghan government never agreed," he said.
Hamidzada adds Afghanistan will cooperate with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, in the crackdown.
The effort is expected to focus on seven southwestern provinces where nearly all of Afghanistan's opium is produced. American, British, Canadian and Danish forces comprise the bulk of NATO troops operating in that part of the country.
An ISAF spokesman in Kabul says it is still unclear when such operations will commence.
Meanwhile, President Hamid Karzai on Saturday shuffled9 his Cabinet. He placed Hanif Atmar, a veteran minister with a clean reputation, as head of the corruption-riddled Interior Ministry10.
The ministry oversees11 the poorly-regarded police and some of the ministry's ranking officials are alleged12 to be facilitating the lucrative13 narcotics trade.
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| An Afghan farmer collects resin14 from poppies in opium poppy fields in Helmand province, south of Kabul (file photo) |
The opium industry provides tens of millions of dollars of funding annually15 for the Taliban fighters, who oppose Afghanistan's democratic government.
U.S. military officials say American-led coalition16 and Afghan soldiers killed nine insurgents17 during overnight operations in Ghazni and Kandahar provinces. They say two of those who were killed were Taliban and al-Qaida commanders.
Here in Kabul, the country's intelligence service released a statement Saturday saying it recently thwarted18 a plot to use suicide bombers19 to free Taliban prisoners from a notorious jail on the outskirts20 of the capital. Authorities say three policemen were arrested for their alleged involvement. Officials believe the jailbreak would have resembled the assault four months ago on a Kanadahar prison which freed 900 prisoners, nearly half of them Taliban.
