Former ISAF commander points to drugs as growing threat to Afghan stability
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The former commander of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan warned the surge in drug trafficking threatens to undermine stability there, calling it &quot;the crocodile in the room.&quot;
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MONS, Belgium  - NATO's top commander of   operations, General James Jones, acknowledged on Thursday the   alliance had been taken aback by the extent of violence in   southern Afghanistan and urged allies to provide   reinforcements.
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The war against terror was being won in Afghanistan, but the country faced a new danger that threatened the entire international community, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned on Wednesday.
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Afghanistan says its war on drugs is the top priority after a UN report warned it risked becoming a narco-state with opium cultivation jumping to record levels, but it says it opposes aerial spraying of opium fields.
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A Taliban commander killed in southern Afghanistan last week had rejoined the hardline militia after his release from Guantanamo Bay earlier this year, according to an Afghan provincial governor.
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The Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has said the country&#39;s rampant drugs trade is a national disgrace. He said that if it was not brought under control, it could present a more serious threat than the Russian invasion of Afghanistan 25 years ago.
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Kabul, Afghanistan -- In the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, where his $100 million empire is based, inquiries about Haji Bashir Noorzai elicit an anxious frown, a shrug or the vague explanation that he left years ago.
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A senior American commander overseeing efforts to capture Taliban and al-Qaida remnants in Afghanistan said Monday his mission could be harmed by any instability in neighboring Iran.
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NATO forces inflicted a "tactical defeat" on the resurgent Taliban movement in southern Afghanistan in an offensive that ended last weekend, but a growing illegal narcotics trade that helps fund the insurgency is gaining ground, NATO's top military command said today.
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Hard-fought gains by NATO troops this year could be lost in coming months if Afghan forces fail to hold ground seized from the Taliban, the NATO commander in Afghanistan said in an interview broadcast on Friday.
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Afghanistan's world-leading opium cultivation rose a "staggering" 60 percent this year, the U.N. anti-drugs chief announced Saturday in urging the government to crack down on big traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police.
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A record opium crop in Afghanistan is likely to renewed debate about the United Statesâ troubled $600 million counternarcotics program there.
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The pitfalls of the governmentâs use of informants with questionable backgrounds are illustrated by the case of an Afghan drug lord and Taliban ally.
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MUNICH, Germany  - NATO expects to have smashed most of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan within the next two years but will need to keep troops there after 2009, the alliance's chief said on Saturday.
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Afghan security forces may not be able to hold ground captured by NATO forces in Afghanistan if Taliban insurgents regroup and launch a new offensive over the winter, the top US commander warned Friday.
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The former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan insisted that the battle with Taliban insurgents was a winnable war if international troops maintained their resolve.
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Helmand province in southern Afghanistan on the verge of becoming world's biggest drugs supplier.