Word: talibans
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...army, which has 35,000 troops, will assume a greater role. But in places like Helmand province, where few Afghan or foreign troops were stationed, the main burden of fending off the insurgents has fallen to an Afghan police force that is poorly trained and often overmatched by the Taliban. Says Sam Zia-Zarifi, research director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division: "They are totally ill prepared for what they are going to face...
When TIME visited one police unit in Helmand last month, the shortcomings were obvious. A number of policemen said they hadn't been paid in a year. Most did not have uniforms. Some had received a few weeks of training, others none at all. Though Taliban militants in the area have murdered aid workers and local politicians, torched schools and menaced teachers, the police say the U.S. has paid the area scant attention, essentially ceding territory to the insurgents. Haji Mosa Jan, the Gereshk district commander, says, "We used to patrol with one or two men" in Sangin...
...police attribute the breakdown in security to a plague familiar to law-enforcement officials around the world: drugs. Helmand's police oversee a sizable and dangerous jurisdiction--mountains to the north, desert and a long border with Pakistan to the south--in which opium traffickers and Taliban militants have struck up a marriage of mutual convenience. The province is the biggest opium-growing region in Afghanistan, which produces close to 90% of the world's heroin. While the U.S. and Afghan governments have announced measures to curb poppy cultivation, a visit to Helmand reveals how challenging such a campaign would...
That poses a major problem for the police. Drug money, which accounts for perhaps one-third to one-half of Afghanistan's gross national product, creates its own loyalty. Druglords, some of whom have government connections or even hold official posts, "give the Taliban money and weapons" to keep the security forces occupied, says Haji Mirwais, the deputy police commander in Gereshk. "If we go somewhere, someone tips them off, and we get ambushed." In return, the Taliban safeguards heroin factories and provides armed escorts for drug convoys. U.S. military officers say the confluence of drugs and militancy has left...
...late. Afghan officials say Taliban commanders are using money from druglords to finance a guerrilla force that could sustain an insurgency for years. A continued source of irritation for military officials is the infiltration of militants from Pakistan; many Afghan officials believe that elements in Pakistan's intelligence agency, which midwifed the Taliban in its early years, are conspiring with the religious parties that govern Pakistan's border regions to create a safe haven for Taliban commanders and a launching pad for attacks--including around 25 suicide bombings in the past six months--throughout Afghanistan. Helmand Governor Mohammed Daud told...