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38 militants killed, marijuana seized in Afghanistan clashes
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 26, 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO-led troops killed 38 suspected insurgents in two separate confrontations in southern Afghanistan, and Western troops and Afghan police elsewhere seized more than 10 tons of marijuana from a truck, officials said Wednesday. The fighting in Kandahar's Zhari and Panjwayi districts on Tuesday targeted militants that were attacking the alliance's "development efforts" in the area, said Maj. Luke Knittig, the spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. NATO forces launched a major military operation in the Panjwayi area in September. The alliance said it killed more than 500 suspected militants during that offensive. NATO-led troops and Afghan police, meanwhile, seized the marijuana from a truck that was stopped in southern Afghanistan on a road linking the southern city of Kandahar with Kabul, the alliance said. Four people in the truck were detained. Marijuana is illegal in Afghanistan, but officials here concentrate more on the fight against the opium trade. According to the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime, some 2.9-million people were involved in growing opium, representing 12.5 percent of the total Afghan population, and revenue from this year's harvest was predicted to hit over $3-billion.
[Last modified October 26, 2006, 00:49:59]
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