Iran training hundreds of Taliban militants to kill NATO forces

TEHRAN - Hundreds of Taliban insurgents have been trained in Iran to launch attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan, two Taliban commanders have revealed.

The Times quoted the commanders as saying that Iranian officials paid them to learnt to mount complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to kill western forces.

The commanders attended three-months’ training after being smuggled across the border to the city of Zahidan, an hour’s drive from training camps in the desert.

According to them, instructors in plain clothes provided daily exercises in live firing.

The first month was devoted largely to teaching the Taliban how to attack convoys and how to escape before NATO forces could respond.

During their second month, they were shown how to plant IEDs in sequence so that the rescuers of soldiers wounded in one blast would be caught in further explosions.

The third month was spent on storming bases and checkpoints.

Recently, American ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry described the co-operation between Iran and the Taliban as disturbing.

“Iran or elements within Iran have provided training assistance and some weapons to the Taliban,” he said.

A military crackdown in Pakistan is believed to have encouraged Taliban leaders to look to Iran for more help.

“The military is pressuring the Taliban in Pakistan. It is certainly harder to reach places that were once easy to get into. I think more of my fighters will travel to Iran for training this year,” one Taliban commander admitted.

Shi’ite Iran had long opposed the Sunni-dominated Taliban, but the common objective of targeting America seems to be bringing the change in relations.

“Our religions and our histories are different but our target is the same. We both want to kill Americans,” one Taliban commander said. (ANI)