The Taliban's battle over the ballot

[bemildred]

KARACHI - Rich with money they make from Afghanistan's opium trade, the Taliban-led resistance has the funds to finance its struggle against foreign troops in the country, in many cases using the same smuggling routes the drugs take to procure arms on the black market. These routes traverse Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey, the Central Asian states and Iran.

The Taliban are buying more sophisticated arms, and Russian and Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles in particular are flowing into Afghanistan in increasing numbers, according to people familiar with the resistance who spoke to Asia Times Online.

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With nationwide parliamentary elections due in Afghanistan on September 18, the Taliban have raised the tempo of their attacks in an attempt to disrupt the voting process. In the latest attack, Afghan officials say that six Afghan policemen and two suspected Taliban insurgents had been killed this week after militants attacked a police post in Muqur, a district of southern Ghazni province.

More than 1,100 people have been killed in bomb blasts and shootings so far this year, compared with 850 for the whole of 2004. This includes more than 70 US troops.

Asia Times