Official -Afghan MPs back Taliban, drugs trade

A senior Afghan intelligence official has accused a number of parliamentarians of supporting Taliban insurgents, Afghan newspapers said on Wednesday.

Afghan and foreign troops are struggling to contain the growing Taliban insurgency while President Hamid Karzai's government is also coming under increasing international pressure to rein in rampant corruption fed by the booming drugs trade.

The deputy head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Dr. Abdullah, told parliament on Tuesday that a "number of delegates" in the parliament "supported drug traffickers and terrorists", several newspapers reported on Wednesday.

Abdullah, who uses only one name, did not elaborate and did not name any politicians.

Such allegations have been made in the past by ordinary Afghans and Western officials, but it is the first time a senior official has accused lawmakers of helping the Taliban.

A spokesman for the NDS confirmed Abdullah's remarks, but declined to comment further.

An official for the lower house of parliament rejected Abdullah's comments and said they were aimed at covering up the government's failure to tackle the insurgency and drugs problem.

Some 2,500 people have been killed in Afghanistan this year, up to 1,000 of them civilians, aid agencies say, and the number of violent incidents has risen to its highest level since U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001.

Afghanistan produced some 93 percent of the world's opium last year, bringing some $3 billion of illicit funds into the economy, fuelling corruption as well as funding the Taliban.