Italians accused of paying Taliban protection money

[IntelToad]

A Taleban commander and two senior Afghan officials confirmed yesterday that Italian forces paid protection money to prevent attacks on their troops.

After furious denials in Rome of a Times report that the Italian authorities had paid the bribes, the Afghans gave further details of the practice. Mohammed Ishmayel, a Taleban commander, said that a deal was struck last year so that Italian forces in the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, were not attacked by local insurgents.

The payment of protection money was revealed after the death of ten French soldiers in August 2008 at the hands of large Taleban force in Sarobi. French forces had taken over the district from Italian troops, but were unaware of secret Italian payments to local commanders to stop attacks on their forces and consequently misjudged local threat levels.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 877142.ece

[allmylife]

Whats the point of sending troops if your gonna pay to not be attacked... No honor at all..

[rgrokelley]

Here's a documentary (in English of course, since we don't speak Italian)

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[KW Driver]

anyone who'd ever worked near them surprised? they did the same shit in Somalia

[Ranger Bill]

Italy fought on both sides during WWII.

[The Holmchicken]

Italians are like the French. They're good at fighting and killing each other. And that's about it.

[Reiver]

It's worked before, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Huns...

Hmmmnn...may be not so much. Butt they're more experienced than most.