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Behind enemy lines with the Taliban of Helmand ; In this exclusive report for the 'IoS', three members of the Taliban waging war on British troops in Afghanistan tell Chris Sands why they feel they have no choice but to take up arms against the 'foreign invaders'
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When Zahir Jan set out on the journey from his home in Helmand to
the neighbouring province of Kandahar, he knew there was a good
chance he might not finish it.
"It's not easy being in the Taliban these days," he said. "At
every checkpoint on the way here the police and army asked us for
bribes. They said if we didn't pay them they would hand us over to
the foreigners."
The 20-year-old had just travelled through an area Tony Blair
describes as the key to world security. It was ...
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research
 "The Economist (US)")
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Putting the Hell in Helmand; Afghanistan.(Afghanistan's Helmand province)
The Economist (US)
; In the war-torn south, the British and the Taliban are both resented AKHTAR, a well-to-do cloth merchant in his 50s, recalls the optimism Afghans in his province of Helmand felt when the Taliban were defeated in 2001. It is exhausted. Now we just say everyone should leave us alone. And that
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One year on, Helmand is a bloody failure ; WORLD
The Independent - London
; The explosion tore the suicide bomber apart and set alight parked cars. The guard who had shot him was seriously injured as were some Afghans on their way to the mosque for Friday prayers. Terrified women clutching their children fled as ambulances and police cars arrived. The attack was in the
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Behind enemy lines with the Taliban of Helmand ; In this exclusive report for the 'IoS', three members of the Taliban waging war on British troops in Afghanistan tell Chris Sands why they feel they have no choice but to take up arms against the 'foreign invaders'
The Independent on Sunday
; When Zahir Jan set out on the journey from his home in Helmand to the neighbouring province of Kandahar, he knew there was a good chance he might not finish it. "It's not easy being in the Taliban these days," he said. "At every checkpoint on the way here the police and army asked us for bribes.
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Opium, corruption and the Taliban: the deadly alliance that our troops have to defeat Adam Holloway has just returned from Helmand in Afghanistan, where the British Army is about to begin operations. Their task, he says, is immense - and fraught with danger
The Sunday Telegraph London
; ... clean out the drug traffickers, including the Taliban. All this can work. It can be done. But I don't think our Government's good-news-only machine has prepared us, or the Army, for just how big a task it is - nor how much potential there is for it all to go very ...
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Emerging Epicenter In the Afghan War; NATO Aims to Loosen Taliban's Grip in Helmand
The Washington Post
; Lala Jan is a hostage in his own home. In his village in the southern province of Helmand, Taliban gunmen patrol the streets and NATO warplanes scour the skies. Jan fears both, so in recent months the 28-year-old farmer has hardly stepped beyond his front door. "I don't go out," Jan said in a
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Taliban time for Britain; The army in Afghanistan.(The army is fighting hard in Helmand)
The Economist (US)
; No rest for the weary The paras are supposed to be in Helmand to make peace, not war BRITISH troops have history in Afghanistan, where 3,300 have been sent to lead a NATO peacekeeping operation. The NATO barracks in Kabul is built where British armies camped during two 19th- century wars. Southern
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'If the British do bad in Helmand, they will return home in coffins' When 3,300 troops arrive in anarchic southern Afghanistan, they will find a land riven by warring drug lords, terrorists and poppy farmers prepared to die to protect their crops
The Sunday Telegraph London
; KNEELING IN his field, Ahmadjan Barich pointed at his crop with a calloused finger, its tip stained pale green from stripping poppy bulbs and its nail a deep red from soothing henna. "This is my life he said, indicating the tiny green shoots that in three months' time will yield milky white, oozing
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Sacked for 'corruption and drug-dealing', but warlord seeks return to power in Helmand
The Independent - London
; A former governor of the Afghan province of Helmand, who was sacked at Britain's insistence because of alleged corruption and drug-dealing, is on the verge of returning to the job. The Independent has learned that Sher Muhammed Akhunzada has managed to place allies in key official posts in the
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British Troops, Taliban In a Tug of War Over Afghan Province; In One Town, a Small Force Battles for Yards of Ground
The Washington Post
; Perched on the banks of the Helmand River, this desolate town occupied by British forces marks Afghanistan's de facto border: Beyond here, the Afghan government is powerless and Taliban insurgents hold sway, their ranks replenished by recruits who enter unchallenged from Pakistan. "Everything you
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Taliban hinder NATO 'ink-spot' strategy; A Canadian soldier and 21 civilians were killed Thursday in separate attacks in Afghanistan.(WORLD)
The Christian Science Monitor
; Byline: Rachel MorarjeeCorrespondent of The Christian Science Monitor CAMP BASTION, HELMAND -- Any Taliban fighters approaching Camp Bastion are visible for miles because the main British base in southern Afghanistan is slap-bang in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing around Bastion but seas of
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