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Iran supplying Taliban with munitions: report |
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Tuesday, 22 May 2007 |
LONDON (AFP) - Iran is supplying the Taliban with weapons and ammunition for use against coalition troops in Afghanistan, a newspaper said Tuesday, citing a senior British army source.
The Daily Telegraph said that officers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were supplying hundreds of weapons, including SA7 Strella surface-to-air missiles, plastic explosives, anti-tank mines, AK47 assault rifles, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
"There is reporting that leads us to believe a number of agencies, that possibly include Iranian organisations, are significantly supporting the Taliban," the source told the broadsheet.
It is not thought the Taliban militia are well trained in how to use the weaponry efficiently, said the newspaper, whose report was in line with what a diplomatic source told reporters recently.
British authorities are understood to be investigating the interception of convoys of new Revolutionary Guards weapons, one in late April and one in early May, and considers it a worrying development.
According to the Telegraph, munitions were thought to come either directly from Iran or smuggled in through dealers, and were mostly taken on trucks or donkeys to the Sangin valley in the restive southern Helmand province where they are used against British troops.
They were discovered by American special forces teams working alongside the Afghan army, the newspaper said.
Iran has denied claims from the United States that it had sent mortars and plastic explosives destined for the Taliban.
It also rejected British accusations that there were indications that it was seeking "confrontation by proxy" in Afghanistan.
A diplomatic source recently noted that Iran has no strategic interest in supporting the Taliban, given that the Shia-dominated Tehran regime and the Sunni Muslim extremists are not natural allies.
London therefore assumes the Iranians are motivated by the opportunity to harm coalition forces in Afghanistan, said the source, on condition of anonymity.
However, it is understood that Foreign Office officials believe some strata of the Iranian regime would be embarrassed to find the Revolutionary Guards were supplying the Taliban.
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