Italian secret service paid off the Taliban so that they would not attack its soldiers

The Italian secret service had been paying tens of thousands of dollars to Taliban commanders to keep quiet those areas, where the Italian troops were deployed, the British newspaper The Times, citing sources in the NATO, reported on Thursday.

The practice of paying off Taliban has lead to elimination of 10 French occupation soldiers in August 2008, who took over from the Italian contingent in the city of Sarobi, 65 km east of Kabul, however had not received any information on "methods of its work."

As a result, the French military miscalculated the operational situation and sent two platoons (60 men) to patrol the mountains, who were ambushed. In a clash with the Afghans on Aug. 18, 2008 10 soldiers were killed and 21 were injured.

"One cannot be too doctrinaire about these things," a senior Nato officer in Kabul said. "It might well make sense to buy off local groups and use non-violence to keep violence down. But it is madness to do so and not inform your allies."

Another source in the North Atlantic Alliance said that U US intelligence became aware of the payments made by the Italian secret services to the Taliban in Herat province.

"The Italians never acknowledged it, even though there was intercepted telephone traffic on the subject," said the source. "As a result, in June 2008 the US Ambassador in Rome made a démarche, or diplomatic protest. It was not publicized because it would have caused a diplomatic nightmare. We found out about the Sarobi payments later."

According to NATO officials, interviewed by the edition, monetary relations with the Taliban practiced in order to avoid casualties among the Italian contingent in Afghanistan, which would cause political difficulties in Italy.

We would like to remind in this connection that in September, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared his country is going to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

Berlusconi made this statement after the Taliban attacked a NATO convoy on September 17 in Kabul, killing 16 soldiers, including 6 Italians.

Berlusconi, however, had promised that any decision regarding the further presence of Italian troops in Afghanistan will be coordinated with allies.