| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Afghan MoD Condemns Paying the Taliban |
| 2009-11-20 |
| [Quqnoos] The Afghan Ministry of Defense condemned paying off the Taliban, saying it would further endanger the Afghan National Army. Earlier, The Guardian reported that the cousin of President Karzai, the son of the Afghan Defence Minister and the US army pay millions of dollars to Taliban insurgents to allow their supply trucks to move through certain areas. According to the article, the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai's cousins and the Defense Minister's son handle the companies that transport US supplies in Afghanistan. The amount of the payment, according to The Guardian, depends on the number of trucks and what they are carrying. If there are fuel trucks, the Taliban charge them more. But the Afghan Ministry of Defense said that, "Paying the money to Taliban insurgents would set back the Afghan Army." It added, "That supporting the Taliban by any means would cause the situation to deteriorate in Afghanistan." "Any movement in any way supporting the insurgency in Afghanistan, because they are at battle with us- we condemn such actions," Gen Zahir Azimi, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said on Wednesday. "Because they are in battle with us, killing our soldiers," he emphasized. It is said that the son of Afghan Defense Minister Abdurrahim Wardak handles the most important private security company in Afghanistan, which is in charge of securing most of the US supply trucks in Afghanistan. The Taliban have continuously been targeting US military supplies since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Following the attacks by the Taliban on trucks carrying US military supplies, the US tried to change the supply routes from southern Afghanistan to northern Afghanistan- a relatively stable part of the country. But Taliban insurgents attacked the trucks even after the routes were moved to the northern part of the country. |
| Posted by:Fred |