Some Taliban fighters trained in Iran: Nato

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Some Taliban fighters trained in Iran: Nato

KABUL (May 31 2010): The commander of Nato and US forces in Afghanistan said Sunday there is ``clear evidence' that some Taliban fighters have trained in Iran. General Stanley McChrystal told reporters in the Afghan capital that Iran Afghanistan's western neighbour has generally assisted the Afghan government in fighting the insurgent group.

``There is, however, clear evidence of Iranian activity in some cases providing weaponry and training to the Taliban that is inappropriate,' he said. McChrystal said Nato forces are working to stop both the training and the weapons trafficking. Last month, McChrystal said there were indications that Taliban were training in Iran, but not very many and not in a way that it appeared it was part of an Iranian government policy. He did not give details on how many people have trained in Iran at Sunday's news conference.

Nato said a service member was killed Sunday in a small arms attack in southern Afghanistan, taking overall Nato losses in May to 49, according to a tally by The Associated Press. That makes May the deadliest month for foreign troops in Afghanistan since a spike in February during a major offensive in Marjah, when 53 died, including 31 Americans.

The nationality of the service member killed Sunday was not released. May is already the deadliest month for US forces this year, with 32 troops killed. The month also brought the 1,000th US military death in the Afghan war since it began in 2001. The AP's figures are based on Defence Department reports of deaths as a direct result of the Afghan conflict, including personnel assigned to units in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Uzbekistan. Non-US deaths are based on statements by governments that have contributed forces to the coalition.

The Taliban have spread out beyond their heartland in the south in recent years to increasingly launch attacks countrywide. In the north, insurgents detonated a remote-controlled bomb Sunday as a police convoy passed by, killing seven officers in a province previously considered to be relatively safe, said deputy provincial Gov. Shams-ul Rahman.

The attack was the deadliest of a half-dozen separate incidents across the country. In nearby Kunduz province, militants attacked a police checkpoint in Ali Abad district, triggering a gunbattle that killed three insurgents and wounded seven others, the Interior Ministry said.

In eastern Paktia province, Nato planes dropped guided bombs on Saturday to kill a team of militants that had fired mortars at coalition forces in Zormat district. And Nato and Afghan forces killed one suspected militant and detained several others at a compound in southern Helmand province where bomb-making equipment was found. Coalition patrols arrested other suspected insurgents in operations elsewhere in Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar, both considered Taliban strongholds. In Ghazni, also in the south, militants on Sunday attacked a convoy of fuel tankers on a road regularly used as a resupply route for Nato forces. The assault left the trucks burning but caused no injuries.

Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]