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Two US employees killed in Pakistan drug-busting operation Two US employees killed in Pakistan drug-busting operation
(35 minutes later)
Two local employees of the US consulate in the Pakistani city of Peshawar have been killed by an explosive device along with some soldiers while on drug-eradication mission, according to John Kerry, the US secretary of state. Two Pakistanis working on a US government counter-narcotics programme in the restless border region near Afghanistan have been killed by roadside bomb, John Kerry announced on Tuesday.Speaking to an audience in Washington, the US secretary of state also said “a few” of the Pakistani soldiers accompanying the men on an “effort to eradicate poppy fields” were also killed, although an army spokesman was not available to confirm the claim.
The unidentified men were local employees at the US consulate in the western city of Peshawar and were working on a programme that attempts to persuade opium farmers to grow alternative crops.
Related: The Peshawar women fighting the Taliban: 'We cannot trust anyone'Related: The Peshawar women fighting the Taliban: 'We cannot trust anyone'
“Just this morning, I woke to the news that we had lost two local employees in Peshawar who worked with our consulate there who were going out on a effort to eradicate narcotics fields,” Kerry told an event in Washington on Tuesday on countering violent extremism. Naveed Khan, a Pakistani official, told the Associated Press that one of the men killed was an inspector working on the project and the other was employed as a driver.Pakistan’s opium production is dwarfed by neighbouring Afghanistan, which cultivated 183,000 hectares in 2015, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).By contrast, Pakistan produces an estimated 1,000 hectares, mostly concentrated in a tribal region where the state’s authority has been severely challenged by militant groups.However, the country is a major centre for the processing of raw Afghan opium, with the UNODC estimating Pakistan is the destination and transit country for approximately 40% of opiates from its neighbour.
“An IED exploded and several were lost; a few of the soldiers who were there to guard them also,” Kerry said. He gave no other details of the incident.
State Department spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.