Rome, Oct 15 (DPA) The Italian government denied Thursday a British newspaper report alleging it authorised clandestine payments in 2008 to the Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan to maintain peace in areas of the country monitored by Italian troops.
Referring to the report in the London-based Times, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s office in a statement also denied that, in June 2008, the US Ambassador to Rome made an official diplomatic complaint to the Italian government over the alleged payments.

“The information given by the Times, presented as fact, is rubbish,” Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa was quoted as saying by the Adnkronos news agency.

In its report published Thursday, The Times cited sources, identified only as “Western military officials” and “high-ranking NATO officers”, as saying that US intelligence officials had intercepted telephone conversations revealing that the Italian secret service paid “tens of thousands of dollars” to Taliban commanders and local warlords.

The payments were allegedly made to insurgents operating in the far-western Herat province - where most of the Italian military contingent in Afghanistan is deployed - but also in the area of Sarobi, east the capital Kabul, which was under Italian military command in the first half of 2008.

The French military, which took over command of Sarobi from the Italians in July 2008, suffered the loss of 10 men in a Taliban attack that took place the following month.

According to the Times’ sources, the French were not aware of the payments made by the Italians to the insurgents and were led to believe the area posed no serious security threat.

While not referring directly to the incident, the Italian government in its statement said Italian troops in Afghanistan had been targeted in “numerous attacks” during the first half or 2008, when the alleged payments were supposedly made. Those included the killing of an Italian soldier near Sarobi Feb 13, 2008.

The statement also cited then NATO commander in Afghanistan, US General David McKiernan, who praised the effort of Italian troops in the Sarobi area. Those efforts included the construction of bridges, wells and schools, making Italian work there “a model” to be adopted by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Twenty-one Italian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since Italy began deploying troops there in the aftermath of the 2001 US-led invasion.

In an attack in September, six Italian soldiers were killed when a vehicle packed with explosives blew up near their armoured car on a road outside Kabul.

Some 2,800 soldiers are currently deployed in Afghanistan, in a mission which, according to opinion polls, continues to divide public opinion.

Leaders of the Northern League, the junior government partner in Berlusconi’s government, have repeatedly called for the withdrawal of the troops.

However, Berlusconi has assured US President Barack Obama of Italy’s commitment to the West’s military mission in Afghanistan, where US troops have been involved in most of the fighting and have suffered the greatest losses.