February 5, 2008:
Afghan troops raided the house of a Taliban
commander near the Iranian border, and seized over a hundred land mines. These
appeared to have been manufactured in Iran. When the Afghans complained to
Iran, they were told that Iran is not supplying the Taliban with weapons. That
may be true, especially if you consider that the Iranian government is run by a
group of senior clerics, who don't always agree with each other. The Iranian
government is split into several factions, and each has a different agenda. The
more radical factions can legally get landmines, and other weapons, from
Iranian factories, and then do whatever they want with them. The more radical
factions have gone as far as supplying Sunni Arab radicals in Iraq and
Afghanistan with weapons, because the Iranians are so eager to kill U.S.
troops. But these weapons are being given to groups that also kill Shia
Moslems. Iran is mostly Shia, and is considered the protector of Shia Moslems
everywhere. The Iranian government uses this as part of its defense in denying
supplying the weapons to the Taliban (who killed thousands of Afghan Shia
during the 1990s) and al Qaeda (which considers the Shia to be heretics.)