The Afghan government banned a fertilizer chemical used in most of the homemade explosives that have killed and maimed hundreds of US and NATO soldiers.
NATO troops have seized tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in raids over the last five months in southern Afghanistan and the government has been discouraging farmers from using it for years for environmental reasons.
Still, the government believes the new ban, announced on Friday, will make it more difficult for the Taliban to replenish supplies of ammonium nitrate, which the US think tank Globalsecurity.com says has been used in more than 90 percent of the homemade bombs, the biggest killer of NATO troops in Afghanistan. Such “fertilizer bombs” have also been used in Iraq in attacks against government security forces.
In the latest bombing fatality in Afghanistan, a British soldier was killed on Friday by a blast in the southern province of Helmand.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued the decree banning the use, production, storage, purchase or sale of ammonium nitrate. Farmers have one month to turn in their stocks or face prosecution.
A number of countries, including Germany, Colombia, Ireland, the Philippines and China, have banned ammonium nitrate fertilizer and most US states regulate its use after the chemical was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, and the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali in which 202 people died.
Mir Dad Panjshiri, an official in the Afghan Agriculture Ministry, said the government had discouraged the use of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for years because urea fertilizer is better-suited to Afghan soils. He said businessmen began importing ammonium nitrate fertilizer in large amounts last year, mostly from Central Asia and Pakistan.
“We detected an increase in the use of the fertilizer over the past year by poor farmers in the southern provinces,” Panjshiri said. “It’s not available everywhere. These poor farmers didn’t know what they bought.”
He said the government was confident it could enforce the ban on its northern borders with Central Asia, but “my concern is more in the south because we have a long border with Pakistan and it’s available there.”
Last September, the government gave US and allied forces permission to confiscate ammonium nitrate fertilizer, compensating farmers if the use appeared to be legitimate. Troops seized 9 tonnes of the fertilizer from a truck in the southern province of Kandahar earlier this month, and another 225 tonnes in Kandahar City in November.
Nevertheless, some farmers said they preferred ammonium nitrate fertilizer and expressed frustration over the ban.
“If the government and NATO forces want to stop fertilizer that they think is used in explosives, they should invest money and make a deal with some other country to import good quality fertilizers,” said Ezatullah, a farmer from Kandahar Province who like many Afghans uses only one name. “We haven’t received any improved seeds or fertilizers. We are not happy.”
Meanwhile, a US group that monitors Islamic extremist Web sites said a militant group reported 15 of its members were killed in a US missile strike in Afghanistan.
The SITE Intelligence Group said the report, posted on Friday by the Turkistan Islamic Party, said 13 Uighurs and two Turks were killed on Tuesday by a missile fired by a US unmanned aircraft in Afghanistan, but did not say where. Pakistani officials reported two missile attacks along the border on Tuesday.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese