Taliban use Christian hostage cash to fund UK blitz
Pastor Dale Morgan
Taliban use Christian hostage cash to fund UK blitz*
By Massoud Ansari in Kila Abdullah, Pakistan
Last Updated: 1:37am BST 15/10/2007
Millions of dollars handed over to secure the release of South Korean
Christian hostages in Afghanistan have been used to buy weapons deployed
against British and American forces in the country, the Taliban claims.
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.
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.