Drug Conflict Complicates Violence Between NATO, Taliban

RAY SUAREZ:

The twin-rotored Chinook troop transport helicopter, similar to this one, was shot down last night. The chopper had just dropped off an assault team from the 82nd Airborne. The seven killed on board, including the five-member American crew, were part of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, the NATO-led stability mission in Afghanistan.

MAJ. JOHN THOMAS, U.S. Air Force:

After the crash, a unit went into the crash scene and received small-arms fire from an ambush from the enemy. It was a hostile area where the helicopter went down, and initial indications are that enemy fire may have brought down the helicopter.

RAY SUAREZ:

That hostile area is Helmand province, a large southern Afghan state. It's become a readout of the revived Taliban movement, which claimed responsibility for the helicopter shoot-down. Sixteen Afghan policemen were killed hours later in a Taliban-led ambush in nearby Zabul province.

The Taliban has stepped up its attacks over the last year, leading to increased counterinsurgency operations by NATO forces. Most of the combat operations and casualties are borne by American, Canadian, British and Dutch troops.

Seventy-five coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year. Their operations have encountered both successes and setbacks. Some have provoked growing tensions with the Afghan government and population because of civilian casualties.

The biggest controversy came in early March. A U.S. Marine Corps special operations company came under fire and, in the chaotic aftermath, the Marines allegedly killed at least 19 Afghan civilians. More than 30 other civilians were wounded. Major protests ensued; the Marine unit was ordered out of the country by its commanding general later in March.

Earlier this month, an American Army colonel offered an apology for the Marines' actions, broadcast on Afghan television.

COL. JOHN NICHOLSON, U.S. Army:

… the death and wounding of innocent Afghans at the hand of Americans is a stain on our honor and on the memory of the many Americans who have died defending Afghanistan and the Afghan people.

RAY SUAREZ:

Other incidents, including wayward U.S. air strikes, have killed more than 100 additional civilians. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has publicly denounced the civilian killings, and America's NATO partners have voiced concern the deaths make the work of counterinsurgency even harder.

The Taliban's operations are funded in part by the illegal poppy trade. Poppy plants are used to produce both opium and, with further refinement, heroin. More than 90 percent of the world's crop came from Afghanistan last year, and this year promises a similar abundant harvest, leading Afghan and U.S. officials to put poppy eradication near the top of a long list of vital projects for the war-torn country.