Apr 18, 2007

Iran Now Arming Taliban, U.S. Says


Iran is known to have provided assistance to the effort to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan immediately following 9/11. The Taliban had previously executed Iranian diplomats and were enemies of Iran.

Now we are saying that Iran is arming the resurgent Taliban.

Hmm...

A shipment of Iranian-made weapons bound for the Taliban was recently captured by allied forces in Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s top officer said Tuesday.

It was the first time that a senior American official had asserted that Iranian-made weapons were being supplied to the Taliban. But Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was not clear if the Iranian government had authorized the shipment.

"We have intercepted weapons in Afghanistan headed for the Taliban that were made in Iran," General Pace told reporters. "It's not as clear in Afghanistan which Iranian entity is responsible."

The shipment involved mortars and plastic explosives and was seized within the past month near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Markings on the plastic explosive material indicated that it was produced in Iran, General Pace said.

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