NATO says 48 militants killed in fighting in Afghanistan

Wednesday, October 25th 2006, 5:10 am

By: News On 6

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) _ NATO-led troops backed by artillery and airstrikes battled insurgents in southern Afghanistan, killing 48 suspected militants in three separate confrontations, the alliance said Wednesday.

At least four civilians were wounded in the clashes in Kandahar's Zhari and Panjwayi districts on Tuesday, the alliance said, adding that they were being treated ent at military medical facilities.

The clashes had targeted militants who were attacking NATO's development efforts in the area, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

NATO-led troops used mortar, artillery and air support in the rolling clashes with insurgents, the alliance said.

NATO forces launched a major military operation in the Panjwayi area in September. The alliance said it killed more than 500 suspected militants during that offensive.

NATO-led troops and Afghan police, meanwhile, seized 10 tons of marijuana from a truck that was stopped in southern Afghanistan on a road linking the southern city of Kandahar with Kabul, the alliance said. Four people in the truck were detained.

Marijuana is illegal in Afghanistan, but officials here concentrate more on the fight against the opium trade.

In the country's west, U.S. and Afghan troops recovered more than 120 pounds of opium from a car in Farah province, another NATO statement said Tuesday.

The U.S. soldiers were supporting an Afghan National Army checkpoint when a car failed to stop, the statement said. An Afghan soldier noticed a suspicious bag where the spare tire was supposed to be and alerted the next checkpoint. A search of the vehicle netted the opium. The car's driver and passenger were detained.

Afghanistan's world-leading opium cultivation rose 59 percent this year, according to U.N. figures released last month.

The record crop yielded 6,100 tons of opium, or enough to make 610 tons of heroin _ outstripping the demand of the world's heroin users by a third, according to U.N. figures.

According to the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime, some 2.9 million people were involved in growing opium, representing 12.5 percent of the total Afghan population, and that revenue from this year's harvest was predicted to hit over $3 billion.

Opium cultivation has surged since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001. The former regime had enforced an effective ban on poppy growing by threatening to jail farmers _ virtually eradicating the crop in 2000.

But Afghan and Western counter-narcotics officials say Taliban-led militants are now implicated in the drug trade, encouraging poppy cultivation and using the proceeds to help fund their insurgency.

The U.N. anti-drug chief also urged the government to crack down on big traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police officers fueling the trade.