Officials at Afghan Ministry of Counter-Narcotics state that the destruction of poppy cultivation for reduction of opium production this year will start from Helmand, Farah, Kandahar and Nimroz Provinces.

Tracts of land totaling 15,000 hectares that were to be used for the cultivation of poppies have been targeted for removal from production in the mentioned provinces.

The Afghan Government and the international community have attempted to prevent drug cultivation and its smuggling from this country during the past ten years, but the statistics indicates that 37,000 additional acres, or 15,000 hectares will go into production of poppies more than last year.

Afghan Ministry of Counter-Narcotic’s spokesperson Abdul Qayum Sawmer says that regular insurgents’ activities in Afghanistan are a major challenge for the Counter-Narcotics department of this Country, because the insurgents are heavy traffickers in narcotics.

According to Mr. Sawmer, there are many challenges for the Counter-Narcotics department of Afghanistan and insurgent forces threats are among the biggest of them.

Afghan Ministry of Counter-Narcotics believes the help from the international community to Afghanistan fort stopping drug cultivation and its export is insufficient.

Based up on the stats of the Afghan Ministry of Counter-Narcotics currently there are nearly 10 million drug addicts in the region with 10 percent of those addicts, or 1 million users, in Afghanistan.

Soldiers of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment have marched through Workington, Cumbria, during their homecoming parade.

The 2nd Battalion, which bears the title Lions of England, has returned from three years in Cyprus, and 15 months’ service in Afghanistan.

A service of thanksgiving was held at St. Michael’s Church, followed by a march through the town centre.

The commanding officer said the regiment was “chuffed” to be back home.

Lt Col Robbie Boyd said: “My Cumbrian soldiers proved themselves time and again in battle over 15 months in Afghanistan and over a record breaking three-year tour of Cyprus.

“Cumbria has supported us brilliantly whilst we have been away, and I am particularly pleased that we are marching through Workington, which, I’m sure, will welcome us home in style.”

Mayor of Allerdale Joe Holliday said: “These soldiers are extremely brave and this parade is the perfect opportunity to welcome home these brave men and women who risk their lives for their country.

“I think it’s wonderful that we can honour these people in this way and show them the people of Workington and Allerdale are proud of them.”

Juma Khan Hamdard was in a convoy of vehicles when three suicide bombers began firing at it outside his headquarters in the town of Gardez, the provincial capital of Paktia, near the border with Pakistan, Rohullah Samoon said.

One police officer and a civil servant were killed in the clash before the bombers were gunned down, he said. The insurgents were in a vehicle packed with explosives that went off during the clash outside the governor’s compound, adjacent to several other key government buildings. There were no casualties from the blast, but it caused some damage to the buildings, he added.

“The governor was the target, but thank God he survived,” Samoon said by phone.

Paktia police chief Abdul Ghafar Safi said the bombers carried assault rifles, a rocket launcher and hand grenades.

Having largely lost the ability to confront the highly equipped foreign and Afghan troops in recent years, the Taliban insurgents have increased commando-style raids in recent years.

The targets of such attacks have been Afghan government as well as Western military and civil installations in various key regions of the country where NATO-led troops are locked in a nearly decade-long conflict with the guerrillas.

A number of high-profile Afghan security and civil servants have been killed in some of the attacks.

On Saturday, five heavily armed Taliban fighters, including at least two suicide bombers tried to hit a NATO-run base of U.S. troops in a complex attack in Panjshir Valley, one of the few secure regions of Afghanistan. The attack, the first of its kind in the valley, was foiled and resulted in the deaths of two drivers supplying fuel for the base and the five assailants.

A day earlier, three police officers were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police checkpoint in a southern town near the border with Pakistan.

The investigation confirmed initial reports that the CH-47 Chinook was downed by a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade, making it the deadliest single attack in the decadelong war.

Seventeen of the Americans on board were Navy SEALs on a mission to capture or kill a senior Taliban leader in the region. Eight Afghans working with U.S. forces — some of whom were military commandos — were also killed when the chopper crashed in Wardak province Aug. 6 while pursuing the target, Qari Tahir.

The investigation puts to rest the prevailing question raised after the crash: Why was such a slow-moving helicopter used to execute a special operations mission?

The use of a Chinook to send in the “Immediate Reaction Force” was consistent with established special operations procedures “and the strike forces selected to execute the mission were appropriate,” chief investigator Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Colt wrote in an executive summary of the investigation, dated Sept. 9.

Despite heavy engagement between U.S. and Taliban forces in the same area where the SEALs were to deploy, intelligence reports failed to detect the group of enemy fighters that shot down the helicopter, according to the report.

“Two or three” rocket propelled grenade attacks were launched from a two-story building about 720 feet away from where the helicopter was hovering over a designated landing zone, according to the report.

Just hours before the crash at about 11 p.m., an Army Ranger-led team had been off-loaded in the same area and was securing the site. Supporting Apache helicopters had killed six enemy fighters by 11:30 p.m. while manned and unmanned aircraft monitored Taliban fighters lingering nearby.

Reports of enemy fighters reorganizing after the initial Ranger assault — along with the possibility that Tahir was part of the group — prompted commanders to deploy the SEAL team to the same area, according to the report.

The first RPG round missed the SEALs’ Chinook, but the second struck one of the helicopter’s blades and exploded, causing the fuselage to separate and fall to the ground and become engulfed in fireball caused by a second explosion upon impact. The summary said all 38 on board likely were killed upon impact.

The Ranger teams moved to the scene, and by 4:12 a.m. had established a security perimeter and began recovery efforts.

Colt wrote that the “shootdown was not the result of a baited ambush, but rather the result of the enemy being at a heightened state of alert due to the 31/2 hours of ongoing coalition air operations concentrated over the northwestern portion of the Tangi Valley.”

But the investigation found that the special operations task force commander did not reallocate intelligence assets to ensure surveillance coverage for the inbound SEALs nor ongoing coverage for the Rangers already on the ground.

“While this finding was not a cause of the shoot-down or crash,” Colt wrote. “It is a noteworthy aspect of the compressed planning process that should be addressed in future (Immediate Reaction Force) missions.”

An anonymous U.S. official told Reuters that no U.S. personnel would be punished for the incident, according to a Wednesday report from the news agency.

“The loss of these selfless and courageous men was a tragedy for which this report can provide little comfort,” Colt wrote in the investigation’s executive summary, which is available on U.S. Central Command’s web site.

A U.S. soldier and two local guards were injured, said Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh, police chief of Panjshir province.

“Attackers were prepared with suicide vests, light and heavy weapons,” said Ata Mohammad Amiri, head of the provincial council.

When the attackers got close to the gate, he said, three fired weapons and rocket-propelled grenades to the tower of the base where guards were watching.

The fourth attacker, who was driving a Toyota, detonated his explosive device near the gate, allowing the others to get in, according to the official.

Two suicide attackers detonated their vests and two were fatally shot by police before their devices went off, he said.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.

This is the first major attack by the Taliban in the province since the U.S. led invasion in 2001.

Panjshir province is about 120 miles north of Kabul.