Afghans move to eradicate opium, destroying fields in Taliban region
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DOBUNDI, Afghanistan -- Anguish creased the weathered face of the opium farmer as a US-trained eradication team swept through his farm fields in this southern Afghan village.
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For the first time, all of the militia fighters in an Afghan region have been disarmed as fighters loyal to two northern commanders gave up their guns under a U.N.-run drive to demilitarize the country.
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Worried about a vast and still growing heroin industry in Afghanistan, the Bush administration has devised a more aggressive counternarcotics strategy aimed at greater eradication of poppy fields, promotion of alternative crops and prosecution of traffickers.
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Opium production has soared to "frightening record levels" in Afghanistan, which now has more land producing drugs than Colombia, Bolivia and Peru combined, the United Nations said on Monday.
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taliban fighters have seized 18 Afghan mine-clearing specialists and threatened to kill them if investigations suggest they are working for US-led forces in the country, officials and the insurgents said yesterday.
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An Afghan city known as ÂLittle AmericaÂ is today the epicenter of a Taliban resurgence and an explosion in drug cultivation.
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Ten people have been killed in fresh fighting in Afghanistan as security forces carried out clean-up operations after some of the heaviest clashes in months left more than 100 people dead, most of them Taliban.
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$43 million will go to reconstruction in five provinces in a bid to reduce Taliban influence.
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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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Pro-Taliban militants have transformed a once-bustling community in northwestern Pakistan into a desolate city under siege.
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The US-led drive to eradicate opium poppy fields in Afghanistan is a waste of money that plays into the hands of Taliban insurgents, a former US ambassador to the United Nations claimed Wednesday.
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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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NATO forces cornering Taliban guerrillas   killed 50-60 fighters in artillery and air strikes and ground   battles on Tuesday in a major offensive to crush a revitalized   Taliban in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said.
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KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 2 -- Opium cultivation in Afghanistan rose a "staggering"  59 percent this year, the U.N. anti-drug chief announced Saturday in urging the government to crack down on big traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police.
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The Taliban and other militant groups in Afghanistan are taking aim at hundreds of public schools.
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BALKH, Afghanistan  - As Afghanistan struggles to cut its raging opium production, aid workers try to find alternative crops, but for some former poppy farmers the choice was easy -- they planted marijuana instead.
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After NATO forces flushed out Taliban insurgents in Pashmul, Afghanistan, a battle for the support of the local people began.