Canada vehemently denied reports that it had also like Italians paid Taliban to buy peace in Afghanistan according to media reports from Toronto.
A Canadian newspaper quoted a report by Agence France-Press as citing an unnamed senior Afghan army official as saying that all NATO forces with the exception of the British and U.S. militaries regularly pay off the insurgents to prevent deadly attacks.
The Star cited the AFP report as quoting the source as speaking specifically of Canadian soldiers in Kandahar, where the military has suffered the bulk of its 131 fatalities, engaging in the practice, as well as the German military contingent in the north.
"I haven't heard of any type of payment that would be done by our troops in order to remain protected," Lt.-Col. Chris Lemay, a spokesperson with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces Command, was cited by The Star newspaper as saying.
"With the number of casualties we've been getting, had we paid these guys they wouldn't be holding up their end of their bargain," he added.
The allegations were floated as a report in a British newspaper alleged Italian military and intelligence officials had been buying off the Taliban with "tens of thousands of dollars" in an Afghan area under Italian control.
The report alleged the Italians failed to inform their French replacements in eastern Afghanistan, misleading them into thinking the area was safe, something that led to the massacre of 10 French paratroopers in 2008.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's office called the report in the Times of London "completely groundless." The Italian defense minister denounced it as "rubbish."
In Kabul, a U.S. spokesman for NATO forces in Afghanistan denied the allegations. "We don't do bribes," Col. Wayne Shanks said. “We don't pay the insurgents."
"The article has unnamed sources, innuendo and hyperbole," Shanks said. "We see no evidence of any of the accusations," the media report quoted him as saying.
The Times reported that Italy had paid off Taliban commanders and warlords in the Surobi district, east of the capital, Kabul.
The newspaper cited Western military officials, including high-ranking officers at NATO, speaking on condition of anonymity.
