Taliban use hostage cash to fund UK blitz

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Taliban use hostage cash to fund UK blitz

By Massoud Ansari in Kila Abdullah, Pakistan
Last Updated: 12:20am BST 14/10/2007

Millions of dollars handed over to secure the release of South Korean hostages in Afghanistan have been used to buy weapons deployed against British and American forces in the country, the Taliban claims.


Killed: Major Alexis Roberts

Frontline: Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

Major Alexis Roberts, 32, Prince William's former platoon commander at Sandhurst, was one of the victims of the Taliban offensive funded by the hostage money.
According to Taliban fighters interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph, the money has also been used to train recruits to carry out terrorist attacks in Britain and America.
South Korea has repeatedly denied claims by Afghan officials that it paid cash to secure the release in August of 21 Christian volunteers who were held for nearly six weeks. But in a recent meeting, three Taliban fighters involved in the conflict with the British in Helmand province said that $10 million cash handed over in two instalments had been used to boost operations in Afghanistan and abroad.
"It was a God-sent opportunity," said Mullah Hezbollah, 30. "It has helped us to multiply our stockpile of weapons and explosives to wage battle for at least a year or so."

He said the money had been paid in August, shortly before the Taliban's fugitive spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, ordered Operation Nusrat (victory), an offensive against coalition troops which ran throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which finished last week. During the operation, four British soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan, including Major Roberts.

"We were really concerned when we received orders to launch Operation Nusrat, because we had hardly any funds to buy weapons to carry out such a major offence," said Mullah Hezbollah. Thanks to the ransom payments, however, the operation proceeded with "full vigour".

Hezbollah and his two companions said they were emissaries of Mullah Mansoor, who took over as the Taliban military commander in southern Afghanistan after his one-legged brother, Mullah Dadullah Akhund, was killed by Special Boat Service troops in May.

From left, Mullahs Hameedullah, Mohibullah and Hezbollah

Their decision to grant a rare interview came after several weeks of negotiations with Taliban intermediaries. The meeting took place in a mud-built Taliban safe house in the town of Kila Abdullah, near the border with Afghanistan in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt. After a 15-hour delay, the three bearded insurgents – all sporting pistols under their robes – arrived and talked about their movement over cups of green tea.
Their claims will fuel the controversy about the 23 South Koreans, who were seized as they travelled by bus from Kabul to Kandahar on July 19. Two of the male hostages were executed, but the rest were released after direct negotiations between the South Korean government and the Taliban. Seoul subsequently agreed to withdraw its small contingent of troops from Afghanistan and bar any more missionaries from working there, although it has denied widespread reports that a ransom was also paid.
Hezbollah, however, gave what appeared to be precise details of the transactions. "They gave us $7 million as a first instalment the day we released 12 hostages, and the remaining money was paid soon after we released the remaining hostages on August 31," he said.

He added that another main source of income was opium produced by poppy farmers in Helmand, thanks to a Taliban fatwa, or holy order. "Our scholars have given a religious decree saying that things which are usually abominable in Islam are permitted to wage jihad against the enemies of Islam," he said.
His comrade, Mullah Mohibullah, 32, disclosed that some of the ransom funds were being used to train volunteers from Britain and America to carry out attacks in their homelands. "We want to destroy them, the way they have destroyed our country," he said. "Most of these youths are suicide bombers."
The group said that suicide bombers, either in vehicles or wearing explosive-laden vests, were also becoming the Taliban's main weapon against occupying forces in Afghanistan. Up to 3,000 volunteers, they claimed, had signed up for the religious training necessary for martyrdom operations.

"We do not have gunship helicopters, nor do we have B-52s," said Mullah Hameedullah, 48. "We will carry out suicide attacks everywhere in the country, be it by waistcoats, cars or other ways."
The men said they had been engaged in operations against the British in Helmand province, but were presently on a mandatory break after four months of living mainly on bread and water. They claimed to have been involved in scores of operations in which British and other Nato troops had been killed.
Ruling out any negotiation with coalition forces, Hameedullah said: "We are ready to fight for a hundred years."
Asked to comment on the Taliban claims, the South Korean embassy in London described them as "lies" put out by the movement's propaganda wing.

Taliban use hostage cash to fund UK blitz - Telegraph