US set to target Afghan poppy trade to wipe out Taliban's main financial source

Zangabad (Afghanistan), Apr.29 (ANI): The United States, is planning to wipe out the multi-million dollar opium crop business in Afghanistan, which serves as the Taliban's main financial source.

According to a New York Times report, the Obama Administration is planning to send 20,000 Marines and soldiers into Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul region of Afghanistan to cut off Taliban's main source of money.

"Opium is their financial engine. That is why we think they will fight for these areas," the deputy commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, Brigadier General John Nicholson, said.

According to a report, American troops will push into areas where few or no troops have been before to crush the trade which now makes up 90 percent of the world's total and 60 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product.

Sources said that the maximum number of US soldiers will spread out along the 550- mile-long mountainous southern border with Pakistan.

A special armored vehicle Stryker would be used by the soldiers, as it is relatively quick and can roam across vast areas that span the frontier, the report said. (ANI)