Afghan Poppy Eradication Campaign Launched [View All]

March 8, 2006, 6:29 AM EST

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Narcotic agents on tractors launched a massive campaign Wednesday to destroy fields of poppies in the main drug belt of Afghanistan -- the world's largest producer of opium and heroin, officials said.

About 1,000 police and soldiers backed up the drug agents in southern Helmand province's Dishu district as they plowed the plants under, said Ghulam Muhiddin, the provincial administrator.

The tight security was to deter retaliation from the heavily armed drug gangs and Taliban rebels, who have purportedly vowed to defend the poppy farms, according to posters pasted on walls in various parts of the country's south.

The eradication, part of a U.S.- and British-funded initiative, comes two days after the Afghan government and the United Nations warned that they expect cultivation of opium poppies to increase across large swathes of the country this year.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-afghan-poppy-eradication,0,3051904.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines


So now the Taliban are defending the poppy fields? Weren't they the ones who had shut them down before we invaded?