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WORLD NEWS Friday 24 January 2020
Survey: Nearly half of Afghans want U.S. troops out after deal

By TAMEEM AKHGAR the foreign fighters among
Associated Press them, a surprising 47% of re-
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — spondents said they should
N early half of all Afghans be allowed to remain in
want U.S. and NATO troops the country. Many of those
to leave Afghanistan once foreigners are believed to
a peace deal to end the have links to al-Qaida and
country's 18-year war is other militant organizations.
signed with the Taliban, Washington has been talk-
according to a survey re- ing directly with the Taliban
leased Thursday. since September 2018,
The American Institute of when the White House ap-
War and Peace Studies pointed Afghan-American
also found that an over- Zalmay Khalilzad to start
whelming 80% of Afghans peace talks. The talks are
surveyed said a political aimed at finding an agree-
solution was the only way ment to end America's
to bring about an end to longest conflict and allow
fighting, Twenty percent the U.S. to bring home its
said a military solution was troops.
possible. The survey showed Afghans
The survey found that were divided over the In this Sept. 11, 2011 file photo, Spc. Angel Batista, 26, left to right, of Bloomingdale, N.J., Spc.
46% of Afghans want U.S. choice of Khalilzad as chief Jacob Greene, 22, of Shreveport, La., and Sgt. Joe Altmann, 26, of Marshfield, Wisc., with the U.S.
and NATO troops out of negotiator, with 41% favor- Army's 25th Infantry Division, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Battalion 27th Infantry Regiment
based in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, sit beneath a new American flag just raised to commemo-
the country once a deal ing his appointment and rate the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Sept. 11, 2011 at Forward Operating Base Bostick in
is struck, while 33% would 39% opposed. A whopping Kunar province, Afghanistan.
have them stay. 20%, however, said they Associated Press
The survey polled 5,038 Af- had no opinion.
ghans in 34 provinces. It Of the 5,038 Afghans sur- between Khalilzad and Tal- gotiations will decide the out first getting a peace
was conducted between veyed, 3,274 were men iban negotiators, will leave future of Taliban fighters as deal.
Nov. 23-Dec. 20 and has and just 1,764 were women. it to Afghans on both sides well as the heavily armed As Afghans contemplate a
a 5% margin of error. Sixty- A strong 83% of those sur- of the conflict to negoti- militias belonging to war- future without a U.S. military
one percent of participants veyed said women should ate the face of a post-war lords ruling in Kabul. troop presence, in Iraq the
answered online with the be involved in the peace Afghanistan. They must The majority of Afghans killing earlier this month of
remaining 39% were inter- negotiations, while just 17% decide on constitutional surveyed said they feared Iranian Gen. Qassem So-
viewed in person. were opposed. changes enshrining the their homeland would de- leimani has bolstered Iran's
While 57% of those surveyed A peace agreement, rights of women, media scend into civil war if Amer- efforts to see U.S. troops
wanted the Taliban to evict which is being negotiated and free speech. The ne- ica pulls out its troops with- leave Iraq. q

Police bust ring

accused of smuggling

10,000 migrants to UK

PARIS (AP) — French and as 20 migrants were held
Dutch police have arrest- in each truck and each
ed 23 suspected members paid as much as 7,000 eu-
of a criminal network that ros ($7,760) for the crossing,
has smuggled as many Europol said. A suspect in
as 10,000 migrants from the Netherlands collected
France to Britain, accord- those payments via an un-
ing to the European police derground banking system,
agency Europol. Europol said. Police seized
The network was suspected firearms and vehicles in five
of earning 70 million euros searches, and the migrants
($77.6 million) in profits by found during the operation
organizing illegal passages were taken to safety.
for migrants from Afghani- Ton van Lierop, a spokes-
stan, Syria, Iraq and Iran, man for Eurojust, said most
Europol said Thursday. of the arrests were Tuesday
The migrants traveled to in France.
Britain from around the The operation came amid
western French cities of Le renewed attention to mi-
Mans and Poitiers. Many of grants risking their lives in
them faced life-threaten- trucks trying to cross the
ing conditions, hidden in Channel after 39 Vietnam-
refrigerator trucks crossing ese trying to enter Britain
the English Channel by ferry died in October in a refrig-
or undersea train. As many erated truck container.q