In its war in Afghanistan, the US seeks to target 50 Afghan drug traffickers who help finance the Taliban instead of halting the country's increasing drug production.

The Pentagon says it has planned to 'kill or capture' Afghan drug traffickers to disrupt the flow of drug money to the Taliban, the New York Times reported Sunday.

According to a Congressional study to be released this week, US military commanders announced that the policy is legal under the military's rules of engagement and international law.

Two unnamed American generals serving in Afghanistan said that on a Pentagon list there are about 50 major traffickers who contribute money to the Taliban, the paper said.

"We have a list of 367 'kill or capture' targets, including 50 nexus targets who link drugs and the insurgency," one of the generals told the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which is releasing the report.

The Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency both estimate that the Taliban obtains about $70 million a year from drugs.

The Bush administration launched Operation Enduring Freedom on Afghanistan in 2001, to allegedly destroy militancy and capture militant leaders including Osama bin Laden.

The invasion of Afghanistan was also justified as part of what the Western countries describe as their "war on drug".

Eight years after the invasion, Afghanistan supplies about 90 percent of the world's drug, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

While Afghanistan produced 185 tons of opium under the Taliban, following the US-led invasion drug production surged to 3,400 tons and by 2007, opium trade reached all-time high of 8,200 tons, according to UN statistics.

In 2008, only in Helmand province more than 103,000 hectares of land cultivated poppy.

Afghan officials blame Washington and its NATO allies for the sudden surge.

The US failure to heed the country's drug industry continues to victimize the youth not only in the region but also throughout the world.

AGB/DT

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