NATO to target Afghanistan drug lords
Updated
![An estimated $100 million a year is channelled to the Taliban from Afghanistan's opium drug lords. [AFP]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/base/afghan_opium_afp_220508.jpg?<BR> "An estimated $100 million a year is channelled to the Taliban from Afghanistan's opium drug lords. [AFP]")
An estimated $100 million a year is channelled to the Taliban from Afghanistan's opium drug lords. [AFP]
NATO troops in Afghanistan have been given approval to go after drug lords who provide tens of millions of dollars to the Taliban.
Correspondent Michael Coggan reports that NATO allies meeting in Budapest agreed to allow International Security Assistance Force troops to mount direct attacks on the Afghan opium trade.
Operations Commander General John Craddock wants the alliance to attack trafficking networks and drug lords who channel an estimated $US100 million a year to the Taliban.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says his soldiers are being killed by weapons bought by the Taliban with drug money.
In the past NATO has avoided tackling the drug trade because many poor farmers make their living from opium crops.
