Daily Times
KABUL: Afghan authorities said on Sunday that they killed more than 60 Taliban in raids against them and their drug-trafficking backers in a restive part of southern Afghanistan. More than 16 tonnes of drugs – mostly opium – were also seized in Bahramcha district of Helmand province, centre of a Taliban-led insurgency and Afghanistan’s biggest poppy-growing region, the interior ministry said. “Sixty-three terrorists were killed,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to Taliban-linked insurgents. “The operation was successfully completed today (Sunday),” the statement said. Two factories for converting opium into heroin were destroyed and “a large number” of weapons and ammunition were also seized in the raids, which began on Friday by Afghan counter narcotics commandos supported by NATO troops, it added. The commandos also freed 10 villagers captured by the Taliban for allegedly working with the government while arresting 10 Taliban and drugs traffickers, the statement said.d. War-ravaged Afghanistan is the world’s largest heroin producer, with annual exports worth $3 billion dollars helping fuel the Taliban insurgency. afp
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