According to the Sunday Times of London, several Iranian companies stationed in Afghanistan are covertly using their offices to fund Taliban militants to kill American soldiers and blow up their vehicles.
The cash comes through a network of treasurers who pay the taliban salary of $233 a month. Each killed soldier is worth a $1,000 bonus and each vehicle brings a $6,000 bonus. The insurgents are better paid than any Afghan police officer or soldier.
One treasurer claims he doesn't care who he gets his money from. A marriage of convenience is acceptable.
"Iran will never stop funding us, because Americans are dangerous for them as well. The money we get is not dirty. It is for jihad."
The treasurer had been an illiterate farmer who was taught to read and write and was given basic accounting skills by the Taliban last winter.
He travels from the the mountains to an Iranian construction company in Kabul to pick up the cash often hidden in a flour sack, and has himself earned almost $79,000 in the past six months.
Reportedly, the money comes from foreign aid which is transferred through poorly regulated Afghan banks. For example, Kabul Bank, is partly owned by President Hamid Karzai's brother Mahmood. From there, the money returns to Afghanistan through the informal Islamic banking system known as hawala.
According to one Afghan intelligence official, Iranian companies had been formed with the intention of winning contracts funded by foreign aid so that donors' cash could be channeled into the insurgency:
"This means the companies involved in funding the insurgency can cover their tracks easily. It makes it harder for us to trace the cash flow."The Iranian embassy in Kabul refused to respond to the allegations.
Fox news
U.S. Soldier captured by Taliban is afraid he will never see family again, CNN
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