Afghan and US-led coalition forces arrested 15 suspected drug traffickers and seized a large quantity of opium in a major counter-narcotics swoop in a southern province, local officials said yesterday.
The operation began on Sunday in Helmand Province and continued yesterday. An Afghan anti-narcotics force, supported by coalition soldiers and helicopters, seized 32 assault rifles, three vehicles and a large quantity of opium, which was then destroyed by burning, two senior provincial officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
One of the officials said that a former provincial intelligence chief was among the arrested suspects.
In a statement, the government confirmed that an operation to disrupt the drug trade had been launched on Sunday in the Lashkargah and Sangin districts of the province, and quoted Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali as saying it was a demonstration of the government's commitment to "ending this shame on our country."
The US military in Kabul did not immediately confirm its involvement in the operation.
The raid came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai, currently in Washington, defended his government's efforts at fighting drugs. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, he claimed that production of opium would be down 30 percent this year.
Afghanistan is the world's main source of opium, the raw material for heroin. Drug production has soared since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, leading to warnings that the former al-Qaeda haven is fast turning into a "narco-state."
A diplomatic cable sent on May 13 from the US Embassy in Kabul and addressed to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a US-sponsored crackdown on the narcotics industry had not been very effective partly because Karzai "has been unwilling to assert strong leadership," according to a New York Times report on Sunday.
The Afghan government statement said that since the launch of a special Afghan anti-narcotics force in January last year, it had destroyed over 90 tonnes of opium, 27 tonnes of precursor chemicals -- used to process opium into heroin -- and over 100 drug laboratories.
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