WASHINGTON (Agencies)
The United States has placed 50 suspected Afghan drug traffickers with ties to the Taliban on a Pentagon target list, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing a congressional report to be released this week.
Major drugs traffickers with proven links to the Taliban have been given the same target status as insurgent leaders, two U.S. generals serving in Afghanistan said in interviews with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that is releasing the report.
The drug traffickers would be targeted either for capture or killing, it said.
" We have a list of 367 ‘kill or capture’ targets, including 50 nexus targets who link drugs and the insurgency " U.S. general "We have a list of 367 "kill or capture" targets, including 50 nexus targets who link drugs and the insurgency," one of the generals told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff.
The generals were not identified in the Senate report, which was obtained by the paper in advance of its release. |
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A shift in U.S. policy " There is a positive, well-known connection between the drug trade and financing for the insurgency and terrorism " Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder The pursuit of Afghan drug lords reflects a major shift in U.S. policy and is likely to raise legal concerns from some NATO countries that have troops in Afghanistan, the newspaper said.
United States military commanders have told Congress they are convinced that the policy is legal under the military's rules of engagement and international law, the report said.
They also said the move is an essential part of a new plan to disrupt the flow of drug money that is helping finance the Taliban insurgency, the Times reported. |
" We are targeting terrorists with links to the drug trade, rather than targeting drug traffickers with links to terrorism " Ryder Several people suspected of ties to drug trafficking have already been captured and others have been killed by the U.S. military since the policy went into effect earlier this year, the paper said, citing a senior military official with direct knowledge of the matter.
Afghanistan's drug trade accounts for 90 percent of the world's heroin traffic and is seen as a major source of governmental corruption.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder did not comment on the Senate report but told the Times "there is a positive, well-known connection between the drug trade and financing for the insurgency and terrorism."
Ryder also added it was "important to clarify that we are targeting terrorists with links to the drug trade, rather than targeting drug traffickers with links to terrorism." |
