Word: mullah
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...British troops in Helmand are fighting with both hands tied behind their backs. They cannot go after the leadership of the Taliban - still led by the reclusive Mullah Omar - which operates openly in the Pakistani city of Quetta, just across the border. They also can't go after the drug trade that funds the insurgency, in part because some of the proceeds are also skimmed by the friends, officials and perhaps family members of the stupendously corrupt government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Helmand province is mostly desert, but it produces half the world's opium supply along a narrow...
...British troops in Helmand are fighting with both hands tied behind their backs. They cannot go after the leadership of the Taliban - still led by the reclusive Mullah Omar - which operates openly in the Pakistani city of Quetta, just across the border. They also can't go after the drug trade that funds the insurgency, in part because some of the proceeds are also skimmed by the friends, officials and perhaps family members of the stupendously corrupt government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Helmand province is mostly desert, but it produces half the world's opium supply along a narrow...
...Mullah Brother, deputy leader of the Taliban, rejected Karzai's offer, telling Reuters via satellite telephone, "We are safe in Afghanistan and we have no need for Hamid Karzai's offer of safety.? He added that foreign forces had to leave before the start of any negotiations. "As long as foreign occupiers remain in Afghanistan, we aren't ready for talks because they hold the power and talks won't bear fruit ... The problems in Afghanistan are because of them." To further underscore the Taliban's rejection of Karzai?s offer, a suicide bomber killed four people today...
Karzai, on the other hand, may see some political advantage in extending an offer that most likely will be refused. Coupled with his offer to the Taliban was an admonishment to his international backers, who have bristled at the idea of negotiating with Mullah Omar in the past. "If I say I want protection for Omar, then the international community has two choices: remove me or leave if they disagree," said Karzai. "If I am removed [by force by the western alliance] in the cause of peace for Afghanistan ... then I'll be very happy...
...weak standing with his defiant statement. "When he said the international community has two choices, he clearly discredited himself," Noorani said. "All along he has been saying that he was elected by the Afghan people, and now he says if the international community does not accept his offer to Mullah Omar, then they can remove him or leave. How can the international community remove him if he is elected?" Safi agrees: "This just proves that the whole election was a farce, and that Karzai is President not by the will of the people but of the West." But if Karzai...