U.S. Rebuilds Power Plant, Taliban Reap a Windfall

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan—The U.S. has poured more than $100 million into upgrading the Kajaki hydropower plant, the biggest source of electricity in south Afghanistan. And it plans on spending much more, in an effort to woo local sympathies away from the Taliban insurgency.

Yet, one of the biggest beneficiaries of this American-taxpayer-financed project are the Taliban themselves.

Since U.S.-funded repairs of a turbine at the Kajaki plant doubled its capacity in October, nearly half of the total electrical output has flowed to districts in Helmand province where the Taliban administer the grid, Afghan officials say. In those districts, residents pay their monthly electricity bills directly to the insurgents, who use the proceeds to fund their war with American and British troops...

...Taliban commanders have every right to collect bills and manage the electricity system, says the rebel movement's chief spokesman in the south, Qari Yusef Ahmadi: "We are the government there—not the puppet government of Kabul."

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