UK-based Taliban spend months fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan
By ANIThursday, November 25, 2010
LONDON - British-based men of Afghan origin are spending months in Afghanistan fighting NATO forces before returning to the UK.
According to a report in the Guardian, they also send money to the Taliban.
A Taliban fighter in Dhani-Ghorri in northern Afghanistan last month told the Guardian he lived most of the time in east London, but came to Afghanistan for three months of the year for combat.
He said that when away from Afghanistan, he worked as a mini cab driver. In Afghanistan, he enjoyed the rank of a mid-level Taliban commander, he added.
“I make good money there [in the UK], you know. But these people are my friends and my family and it’s my duty to come to fight the jihad with them,” he said, adding that there were many people like me in London.
Intelligence officials have long suspected that British Muslims travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan each year to train with extremist groups.
British military officials say there have been no recent reports of British Taliban in Helmand in southern Afghanistan and that the overwhelming majority of foreign fighters are Pakistanis. (ANI)
