NATO Agrees to Escalate Strikes Against Afghanistan's Drug Industry

North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders authorized direct military strikes against Afghanistan's flourishing drug industry, a significant escalation of the alliance's operations there.

Associated Press

NATO Secretary-General de Hoop Scheffer addresses the media after defense ministers agreed to authorize troops in Afghanistan to attack the heroin trade blamed for bankrolling the growing insurgency.

Meeting in Hungary, NATO defense ministers gave cautious approval to a U.S. request that foreign forces be allowed to strike drug-production facilities that have ties to Taliban fighters and other militants.

The move comes in response to growing evidence that Afghanistan's heroin trade is helping to fund the Taliban insurgency that is destabilizing both Afghanistan and Pakistan. U.S. commanders estimate that Taliban militants collect at least $100 million a year from drug sales.

NATO's roughly 50,000 troops will be allowed to mount counternarcotics operations against "facilities and facilitators supporting the insurgency," the alliance's top official, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, told reporters.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the move will allow foreign forces "to take on the drug traffickers who are fueling the insurgency, destabilizing Afghanistan and killing our troops."

NATO members have long been divided about how best to confront Afghanistan's opium trade. The U.S. has advocated an eradication effort that would involve spraying poppy fields with herbicides from the air while simultaneously working to destroy drug labs and other facilities.

Many European countries have opposed the idea, arguing that a hard-line approach would turn many poor farmers against the alliance and fuel new attacks against Western forces.

Fierce U.S. lobbying persuaded NATO officials to approve a limited counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan, but Germany, Spain and other alliance members imposed some significant restrictions.

NATO forces will be allowed to strike only those drug producers known to be directly supporting the insurgency. Individual alliance governments will have to authorize their troops to take part in any such raids. And the program will be temporary, with the first formal review of whether it should continue slated for February.

Still, U.S. officials hailed the NATO move. "We now have the ability to move forward in an area that affects the security and stability of Afghanistan," said Gen. John Craddock, an American officer who is NATO's top military commander. "It will allow us to reduce the funding and income to the insurgents."

Afghanistan produces more than 90% of the heroin sold around the world, and the proceeds have become the Taliban's main source of funding for weapons, salaries and other expenses. Afghanistan's narcotics industry has grown significantly since U.S. forces swept into the country in 2001.

Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com