Firefight at a drug lab in Daychopan, Zabul

The AP provides today one of the first reports I've heard of fighting at a drug lab. The report says the guards were "suspected Taliban" but I wonder how accurate this is...Wish there were more detail on this raid.

In the southern Zabul province, Afghan and coalition troops clashed with insurgents in Daychopan district Sunday, killing four suspected Taliban and wounding four others, said Fazel Bari, the Daychopan district chief.

Also Sunday, Afghan and coalition troops destroyed a heroin laboratory after battling Taliban fighters guarding the facility, a separate coalition statement said. The lab in Helmand contained large amounts of opium-processing chemicals as well as weapons, insurgent propaganda and explosive materials, it said.

Map: BBC.

Comments

[matt]

A little bit more on the drug lab raid can be found here: http://www.pajhwak.com/viewstory.asp?lng=eng&id=41980

The US military offered an official statement on the bust here:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=47196

It is striking how they stress the lab's occupants were 'Taliban' in each of these reports. The fact that Coalition forces are actively raiding drug labs in Taliban territory is nothing new, however, it comes at a particular dicey time as the ongoing poppy problem has (incredibly) gotten worse.