Thats shows how much resolve they have to fight Taliban yet they keep ranting that Pakistan is not doing enough.
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Italy fury at ‘Taliban pay’ claim
French forces took over the area unaware of the policy, leaving them unaware of the risks, the paper says. Ten soldiers were killed within weeks.
In France, opposition socialists demanded the defence minister should answer questions on the claims.
The Times’ report, quoting Western military officials, says the policy was operated by Italian secret services in Afghanistan’s Sarobi area, east of Kabul.
Warlords as well as Taliban commanders were paid, the paper says, with the amounts running to tens of thousands of dollars.
France took over control of the region in 2008, apparently believing it to be a low-risk area, the paper says, as only one Italian had died in the previous year.
But within a month of the French take-over, 10 soldiers were killed and 21 injured in a mountain ambush.
An unnamed Afghan army officer also told French news agency AFP that Italy had paid the Taliban to avoid casualties.
“We knew that Italian forces were paying the opposition (fighters) in Sarobi so they would not be attacked. We have information on similar agreements made in the western Herat province by Italian soldiers under Nato command there,” he said.
“A lot of Nato countries with troops operating in the rural areas of Afghanistan pay the insurgents so not to be attacked.”
Italy also denied a separate element of the Times’ report, which said the US ambassador had submitted a formal complaint after discovering Italians had been buying off insurgents in the far-west Herat province.
A US spokeswoman in Rome said the embassy did not comment “on internal diplomatic conversations that may or may not have occurred”.