Word: talibans
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...shooting death of a British charity worker, followed by the assassination of two western DHL employees less than a week later. The bomb attack on the Ministry of Culture and Information, not far from the presidential palace, appears to have targeted the ministry's foreign advisers, according to the Taliban spokesman who claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of his organization in an interview with the Associated Press. Three attackers rushed the gate of the ministry, according to police witnesses; one was detained, one escaped and the third detonated himself in the entryway, killing five people, wounding another five...
...increasing violence, which has 2008 on track to have the highest number of troop and civilian casualties in Afghanistan since the toppling of the Taliban regime in 2001, has prompted many in the Afghan government to consider reconciliation talks with moderate members of the insurgent group. Wednesday's bombing, however, may serve to dampen public enthusiasm for such talks. President Karzai, who was on his way to Turkey to attend the World Economic Forum on Europe and Asia, called the attack "heinous," saying "Our enemies are trying to undermine the recent efforts by the government for a peaceful solution...
...smuggling or processing, or be stashed everywhere from Kandahar to Turkey - even Western Europe," says Paul Smyth, head of the Operational Studies Program of the Royal United Services Institute in London. Still, few law-enforcement and drug officials believe these factors would explain all the missing opium, leaving the Taliban's intentions for its stockpiles a mystery...
...Taliban grow no opium themselves but earn millions by levying a 10% tithe on farmers. Since heroin use is dropping steadily in the West, the value of opium is diminishing - that's why officials are especially alarmed by the Taliban's stockpiles. "Who would have reasons to hold on to a devalued stock? People who have mischief in mind," says Costa. He believes that the Taliban is saving the opium for lean times. He says the hundreds of Afghans working for the U.N. drug office in southern Afghanistan have recently found notices posted by the Taliban advising farmers...
...Taliban could also be stockpiling drugs in preparation for a possible onslaught on Afghanistan's drug lords. NATO defense ministers agreed at a summit in Budapest this month to use their soldiers in Afghanistan for the first time to attack opium laboratories and smuggling convoys, rather than simply destroy opium crops...