Afghanistan has seen a 20 per cent increase in area under poppy cultivation.  Revenue from narcotics trade has been the mainstay of Taliban. Washington is now attempting to stymie the Taliban stride by targeting  Taliban-run “drug labs”

Pentagon has released videos to show American airstrikes against Taliban-run “drug labs” in Helmand province on Monday, Nov 20, 2017. Clearly, Washington is attempting to stop the Islamist insurgency from “profiting from narcotics trade and other criminal activities.
Statistics released by the US Air Force Central Command establish that the Pentagon is on track to drop more than triple the number of bombs and missiles on the Taliban strongholds this year, compared to 2016.
According to the US military, it has dropped 3,554 bombs during the first 10 months of this year and, at the current rate, is expected to top 4,000 before year’s end. Last month, it recorded 653 bombs and missiles used against Afghan targets, the highest number since November 2010 at the height of the Obama administration’s “surge”, when over 100,000 US troops were deployed in Afghanistan.
The latest raids included strikes by advanced F-22 stealth fighters, which the Pentagon said, were employed in order to carry out “precision” bombing designed to avoid civilian casualties.
Under the new rules of engagement unveiled by the Trump administration in August, the military brass has been given a free hand to escalate the conflict as it sees fit. A total of 16,000 American troops are slated to be on the ground in Afghanistan by the beginning of next year, while the air war is expected to continue escalating
Poppy cultivation and drug trafficking from Afghanistan have grown exponentially in recent years. There has been a 20-fold increase in the territory under poppy cultivation, and the amount of opium produced in the country is 25 times that of 2001.
According to conservative UN estimates, opium production accounts for some 16 per cent of Afghanistan GDP and more than two-thirds of the entire agricultural sector of the country.  .