BBC Claims

The Taleban have stepped up their insurgency in recent months

Elements in the Iranian state are sending weapons across the border to the Taleban in Afghanistan, a BBC investigation has uncovered.

Taleban members said they had received Iranian-made arms from elements in the Iranian state and from smugglers.

The UK says its troops have intercepted arms which it believes were given by a group within the Iranian state.

The Iranian embassy in Kabul dismissed the allegations, saying Tehran supported the Afghan government.

'It's called Dragon'

Among the Taleban, Iranian-made weapons are greatly sought after in the fight against the government of Hamid Karzai and the Nato and US-led forces deployed to support him.

It's a very dangerous game for Iran, a Shia state, to be supplying Sunni extremists, like the Taleban Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, British ambassador in Kabul

They are considered to be reliable and particularly destructive.

For example, an Iranian-made Kalashnikov rifle can be adapted to fire grenades. It costs $200-$300 more than one made in Pakistan, Russia or China.

Iranian-made weapons, one commander told me, had really improved the Taleban's ability to attack the American military deployed in his area. BBC