Germany sees Afghan unrest as drug war intensifies

BERLIN: Violence in Afghanistan is expected to increase when the Afghan government steps up its war on drugs, German Defence Minister Peter Struck said on Friday. Afghan opium output has surged to near-record levels since 2001, when the Islamic Taliban regime, which harboured Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, was ousted in a US-led invasion The United Nations said in November that drug exports accounted for more than 60 percent of Afghanistan’s economy and it risked turning into a “narco-state”. “We have to expect that the security situation will worsen when the Afghan government massively increases measures to combat drugs, probably in the next two or three months,” Struck told a news conference. Germany has 2,200 soldiers in NATO’s 9,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is focused on peacekeeping in the capital Kabul and the north and plans to extend its presence in other areas of the country. reuters

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