Drugs

Afghanistan: Opium wars

British troops have begun deploying in a Taliban-dominated area riddled with corruption and tribal rivalries, where the only industry is growing poppies. Tom Coghlan reports from Grishk and Lashkargar, Helmand Province

"Would the British let us send soldiers to take over their country?" The mood among the group of men on the banks of the Helmand River was menacing. All claimed to be Taliban fighters.

"If one Talib is in a village, the infidels bomb the whole village and kill innocent people," their leader went on. "The British should come and fight us face to face and stop using their planes. They have been here three times and been nicely beaten three times," he added, referring to ill-fated British imperial adventures of the 19th and early 20th centuries. "If there were two million foreign soldiers, we would defeat them if they fought us face to face."

There are already frequent clashes: yesterday Afghan security forces said they had attacked Taliban militants in a cave complex north of Lashkargar, capital of the anarchic southern province of Helmand, where the deployment of 3,500 British soldiers is gathering pace. Two Taliban fighters were said to have been killed and weapons seized.

Afghanisna has gone back to being a forgotten country, the Bush Junta wanted to invade Iraq all along and this was just a sideshow to butter up the public, and now its back to being a top opium producing country, I'm sure organised crime who make cash out of the heroin trade would like to thank the US and UK for doing such a good job.