ANTI-NARCOTICS CAMPAIGN FUELLING AFGHAN VIOLENCE

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A 55-day anti-narcotics campaign and
assaults on Taliban strongholds are responsible for the higher levels
of violence and casualties in southern Afghanistan, but are worth it,
the governors of five southern Afghan provinces and coalition
military leaders told reporters Tuesday.

Southern Afghanistan is a region at war, which is bad news because
more Afghan police and coalition soldiers are being killed, including
four Canadian troops who died on the weekend, but it is also good
news because those military forces and Afghanistan's central
government are on the offensive against the Taliban and drug lords.

"Since the launch of the counter-narcotics campaign and the
poppy-eradication campaign, the campaign has damaged the interests of
certain individuals in that province, which may account for the spike
in insecurity in that province," said Mohammed Doaud, governor of
Helmand province.

"But I believe with our committed and joint efforts we would succeed
in our goal of making a better future," he said.

"Coalition forces, including U.S. forces, Canadian forces and forces
from other contributing nations have provided us with support all the
time in security, but poppy eradication has been undertaken entirely
by Afghan forces wherever that campaign has taken place," said
Kandahar Gov. Assadulah Khalid.

About eight weeks ago, Afghan national police, the Afghan army and
the counter-narcotics squad of the Interior Ministry began destroying
fields of poppies, which are only now losing their petals and
bringing forth the seed pods that produce opium, the black, resinous
substance that is refined to produce the world's heroin.

"As to the question why the campaign was not launched earlier so they
might raise other crops, we could not conduct it for a very practical
reason," Doaud said. "If the eradication program was launched early
in the season, farmers could have re-cultivated their fields with poppies."

Those farmers who lose their poppy crops now will be embittered
against their country's central government since it's too late in the
season to plant other crops, the officials said.

The result is an upsurge in violence partly attributed to that frustration.

But they were warned, Doaud said.

Aggressive coalition tactics, including an attack on the village of
Singesar earlier this month, are also being cited as a cause of the
renewed violence, prompting one U.S. general to defend his forces.

"When the enemy fights us and withdraws into compounds and fights
from compounds, it is wise to use fire, whether it is from artillery,
aircraft or from helicopter or jet fighters," Maj.-Gen. Benjamin Freakley said.