Five More Foreign Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

(RFE/RL) August 12, 2007 -- The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan says three of its soldiers and an interpreter were killed in a bomb blast in the east of the country today.

The coalition says another soldier was wounded in the blast that came during combat in Nangarhar Province.


Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack.


Two other foreign troops, including one British, were reported killed in southern and eastern Afghanistan on August 11.


(compiled from agency reports)

Opium In Afghanistan

Opium In Afghanistan
An antidrug billboard in Kabul shows a skeleton hanging from an opium bulb (AFP)

OPIUM FARMING ON THE RISE Despite a nationwide program by the Afghan government to eradicate opium-poppy fields and offer farmers alternative crops, international experts say that the 2006 opium crop will be as much as 40 percent larger than the previous year's. Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world, and the source of as much as 90 percent of Europe's heroin.(more)


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