Drug traffickers will now be given the same target status as Taliban leaders by US forces. Photograph: Adam Butler/APOpium Barons At Top Of Kill Or Capture List As US Targets The Taleban -- Times Online
The Pentagon has put 50 of Afghanistan’s powerful opium barons on a “kill or capture” list, signalling a radical shift in tactics against the Taleban.
The announcement came as the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, admitted that the insurgency, nurtured by tens of millions of dollars from the country’s vast poppy fields, now held the upper hand.
The existence of the “joint integrated prioritised target list” — a rogues’ gallery of drug lords who are earmarked for arrest or assassination — is revealed in an unpublished Senate report obtained yesterday by The Times.
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More News On The Impact Of Opium On Afghanistan
US Denies Targeting Afghan Drug Traffickers -- Voice of America
US targets Afghan druglords for death or capture -- AP
US puts Afghan drug lords on hitlist to disrupt Taliban finances -- The Guardian
U.S. Military Working to 'Kill or Capture' 50 Taliban Drug Lords -- ABC News
US ‘shifts stance’ on Afghan war -- Financial Times
UK and US hail conviction of Afghan drugs lord -- The Telegraph
How should the US tackle drug trafficking in Afghanistan? -- BBC
Opium takes over entire Afghan families, villages -- AP
Afghan Women and Kids Fight Drug Addiction -- CBS News
Helmand farmers to be offered millions to stop growing poppies -- Independent