New York Post  |  September 5, 2010

Wanted: Irans's 1G Bounty On US Heroes

by Sarah Ryley
With Sunday Times of London

At least five Iranian companies stationed in Afghanistan are covertly funding Taliban militants, paying them salaries of $233 a month with a $1,000 bonus for killing an American soldier, according to the Sunday Times of London.

Blowing up a US military vehicle is worth $6,000, making insurgents better paid than any Afghan police officer or soldier.

"Iran will never stop funding us, because Americans are dangerous for them as well," said a Taliban treasurer, who travels from the mountainous Wardak province to an Iranian construction company that operates out of Kabul to pick up the cash.

"The money we get is not dirty. It is for jihad," he said.

The treasurer said he has picked up almost $79,000 in the past six months.

Afghan intelligence and Taliban sources told the Times that the firms -- set up with foreign aid money within the past six months -- provide cash for a network of district Taliban treasurers to pay battlefield expenses and bonuses for killing the enemy and destroying their vehicles.

The Iranian companies win contracts to supply materials and logistics to Afghans involved in reconstruction. The money often comes in the form of aid from foreign donors.

Profits are transferred through poorly regulated Afghan banks -- including Kabul Bank, which is partly owned by President Hamid Karzai's brother Mahmood -- to Tehran and Dubai.

From there, the money returns to Afghanistan through the informal Islamic banking system known as hawala.

"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," a senior Afghan intelligence official said.

He said the 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.

The Iranian embassy in Kabul refused to respond to the allegations.

Original article here.