Afghan governor sacked.(Main)

Byline: Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Afghan government has fired the governor of its biggest drug-producing province, a center of Taliban resistance that has seen some of the country's heaviest fighting this year, officials said Monday.

Helmand Gov. Mohammad Daud, who has led the province that grows more than one-third of the world's opium, was replaced over the weekend.

Opium production in Afghanistan this year rose 49 percent to 6,700 tons - enough to make about 670 tons of heroin. Helmand's crop makes up 42 percent of Afghanistan's poppy crop, according to U.N. figures.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the …