UK Cabbie Moonlights as ... Taliban Fighter

British citizens with Afghan roots head over for months at a time
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 26, 2010 2:38 PM CST
UK Cabbie Moonlights as ... Taliban Fighter
Afghan security forces escort suspected Taliban members in Herat, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Nov. 22, 2010.   (AP Photo/Reza Shirmohammadi)

Talk about deflating the mystique of the Taliban: "I work as a minicab driver," one fighter in northern Afghanistan tells the Guardian. He spends most of the year in East London but travels to Afghanistan for a few months to join the fight—and he's apparently not alone. "There are many people like me in London," he says. "We collect money for the jihad all year and come and fight if we can." Which explains why RAF spy planes have picked up Yorkshire and Birmingham accents on fighters communicating via radio.
(More Taliban stories.)

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