The U.S. military says it will establish an intelligence center in Bahrain to continue fighting the Afghan drug trade after 2014.
Erin Logan, head of the Pentagon's counternarcotics efforts, told a U.S. Senate panel on drug control in Washington on January 15 that the new center will help ensure efforts to combat the drug trade are not hindered by the reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Also January 15, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko informed the Senate panel that opium poppy harvests in Afghanistan are at an all-time high.
He said that, with 209,000 hectares under poppy cultivation representing 90 percent of the world's opium supply, Afghan farmers "are growing more poppies today than at any time in their modern history."
Erin Logan, head of the Pentagon's counternarcotics efforts, told a U.S. Senate panel on drug control in Washington on January 15 that the new center will help ensure efforts to combat the drug trade are not hindered by the reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Also January 15, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko informed the Senate panel that opium poppy harvests in Afghanistan are at an all-time high.
He said that, with 209,000 hectares under poppy cultivation representing 90 percent of the world's opium supply, Afghan farmers "are growing more poppies today than at any time in their modern history."