commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command, recently said Iran was providing some help to the Taliban, but not enough to make any difference militarily. Most American analysts seem to think Iran is trying to give the Taliban some aid in order to gain some favor without actually giving it enough to accomplish anything.
But Channel 4 News, a private station, said it had been shown documents reporting that more than 10 tons of weapons had been intercepted crossing the border from Iran into Afghanistan in the last 12 months.
It said Afghanistan’s intelligence agency believes 60 percent of he intercepted weapons have come from the Iranian government and the rest from arms dealers.
It quoted one Taliban officer, identified as Commander Nuri, as saying, “Day-by-day, the Iranian border becomes more important for us” as Pakistan is now cracking down on the Taliban.
The Sunday Times quoted two unnamed Taliban commanders as telling it that hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill NATO troops. They said a three-month course instructs the insurgents in carrying out complex ambushes and laying roadside bombs called improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
One of the men said Paki-stan’s crackdown on the Taliban was forcing the organization to turn to Iran for more help.
