Afghan Security Forces Accused of “War Crimes” with CIA Support

Human Rights Watch has accused special units of Afghanistan’s security apparatus of committing “severe war crimes.” These units receive support from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and have been trained and equipped by it.

Human Rights Watch, in a report, has accused special forces of Afghanistan’s security apparatus of actions including nighttime raids on homes, torture, and extrajudicial killings of civilians in their own residences.

“Spiegel Online” reported on Thursday, October 31st (Aban 9th) that the report documents 14 severe attacks between late 2017 and mid-2019, which the human rights organization considers instances of war crimes.

Human Rights Watch says Afghan special units have killed, abducted, or disappeared civilians without authorization and in violation of the law. These units have also been accused of armed attacks on several medical facilities.

The organization’s report emphasizes that although Afghan special forces are considered a subset of Afghanistan’s security organization and have been trained and equipped by the CIA, they operate outside the chain of command of these organizations.

According to the report, a large portion of the Afghan special forces paramilitaries were recruited by the CIA and are supported in terms of military equipment and logistics.

Nighttime Raids and Arbitrary Detention

One of the tasks of these units is described as pursuing and apprehending insurgents and anti-government paramilitaries in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, Human Rights Watch’s report explicitly states that this group conducts its operations primarily at night, and in some cases has not informed family members and relatives about the locations where detainees are transferred.

Forces trained by the CIA have also been accused of carrying out “extrajudicial executions” of detainees in some cases.

Human Rights Watch’s investigations indicate that many nighttime raids were conducted based on flawed intelligence, in some cases attackers mistook the identities of residents, and the actual motivation for some attacks was competition and political differences among various groups.

According to the report, many nighttime raids were accompanied by airstrikes in which civilians were killed either aimlessly or disproportionately to any suspicion against them.

Human Rights Watch has called for the dissolution of special units of Afghanistan’s security apparatus in its report. The United Nations estimates that from the beginning of the current year through September, 205 civilians were killed in operations by these units. This figure represents a 16 percent increase compared to the same period the previous year.

Unprecedented Increase in U.S. Airstrikes

The human rights organization states that in September, the number of airstrikes by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan intensified and reached the highest level since 2013.

The President of the United States, at a memorial ceremony for al-Qaeda’s attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York on September 11, 2001, announced that in recent days, American forces in Afghanistan have targeted the “enemy” more intensely than ever before.

Donald Trump had predicted that these attacks would continue with intensity in the coming days. On December 7th, after an American soldier was killed in a Taliban bombing attack, Washington suspended peace negotiations between U.S. representatives and extremist Islamists.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan, announced on September 1st that after 9 rounds of negotiations in Qatar, U.S. representatives and the Taliban were on the “brink” of reaching a final agreement, and he was traveling to Kabul to consult with the central government.

After this agreement, direct negotiations between Kabul and Taliban representatives were to begin. Khalilzad had expressed hope that these negotiations would shape a “united and powerful Afghanistan” that would not pose a threat to the United States, its allies, and other countries.

Independent CIA Programs in Afghanistan

With the arrival of coalition military forces led by the United States in Afghanistan in 2001, the CIA also, in parallel and separately from these forces, put on its agenda a program to recruit, train, and equip local paramilitaries to counter al-Qaeda insurgents and the Taliban group.

With increasing reports about violent operations by these forces, criticism of them has also increased. Human Rights Watch, in its latest report, which was prepared based on interviews with 39 eyewitnesses to nighttime raids in the provinces of Kabul, Kandahar, Ghazni, Helmand, Nangarhar, Paktia, Uruzgan, Wardak, and Zabul, and reports from local human rights organizations, has called for an independent investigation into the activities of special units.

While calling for the dissolution of these groups by the United States and the Afghan central government, Human Rights Watch has sought cooperation in conducting investigations into their operations and prosecution of those whom the organization says have committed war crimes.

Menschenrechtler werfen afghanischen Sondereinheiten Kriegsverbrechen vor

https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/human-rights-watch-wirft-afghanischen-sondereinheiten-kriegsverbrechen-vor-a-1294210.html

Source: DW