U.S. forces should treat Afghanistan’s opium labs as military targets and strike the facilities that the Taliban and al-Qaida use to help finance their fighting, a House committee chairman said Thursday. “Opium production in Afghanistan not only undermines Afghan reconstruction but also fuels Islamist terror groups,” said GOP Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, head of the House International Relations Committee. The United Nations’ top counternarcotics official, Antonio Mario Costa, also has urged U.S.-led coalition troops to move against smugglers and labs in Afghanistan, the world’s leading opium producer with an estimated $2 billion annual trade. Noting that the 11,000 coalition soldiers are busy pursuing remnants of the Taliban government and al-Qaida terrorists, Hyde said he does not expect Americans to become Afghanistan’s narco-police. Full Story
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