BOGOTA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Colombia, a key Washington ally in Latin America, is studying whether to send troops to Afghanistan to lend support to the U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban insurgency, the government said. Colombia has received billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to counter its own leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers. Violence has dropped sharply as the insurgency weakens, but the country remains the world's No. 1 cocaine producer. A team of top Colombian military officials traveled to Afghanistan on Wednesday to evaluate cooperation, including helping in military engineering, mine removal, special operations and counter-narcotics missions, the defense ministry said. "They will analyze, according to Colombia's experience, the best way to collaborate in Afghanistan and the areas where Colombia can offer its knowledge," the ministry said in a statement on its Web site. But Colombia has yet to take a decision on NATO participation in Afghanistan as the government is still weighing options. It has contacted the British and Spanish governments about cooperation, the ministry said. Foreign troop levels in Afghanistan have increased by more than 10,000 in the past year to around 71,000. But violence is increasing as more militants infiltrate from neighboring Pakistan, authorities say. Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, which can be used to manufacture heroin. Taliban militants are increasingly targeting foreign and Afghan troops with aid agencies saying violence was greater in May and June than in any month since U.S.-led forces helped topple the Taliban government in 2001. (Reporting by Patrick Markey in Bogota; editing by David Wiessler)
Islamist party activists march to show their solidarity with U.S.-trained neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui during a demonstration in Islamabad August 7, 2008. Pakistan has demanded consular access to Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman ...
