Afghan forces, backed by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), are executing and committing other grave abuses without liability, according to a new report.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report details 14 cases in Afghanistan from 2017 to mid-2019, alleging CIA-backed "strike forces" committed serious abuses during night raids, some amounting to war crimes.
The report is based on interviews with locals and witnesses to night raids, as well as with Afghan human rights groups.
One source familiar with Afghan strike force operations referred to them as “death squads”.
The forces have killed civilians during raids, forcibly disappeared people suspected of high-level criminal activity, and attacked healthcare facilities for treating insurgent fighters, the report said.
Afghan security officials present a group of suspected militants to the media during a news conference in Kandahar, Afghanistan, 30 October 2019 Source: EPA
“In ramping up operations against the Taliban, the CIA has enabled abusive Afghan forces to commit atrocities including extrajudicial executions and disappearances,” HRW Asia director Patricia Gossman said.
“In case after case, these forces have simply shot people in their custody and consigned entire communities to the terror of abusive night raids and indiscriminate airstrikes.”
In many cases, the raids - usually in Taliban-controlled areas - were accompanied by airstrikes that "indiscriminately or disproportionately" killed civilians, the report said.
The report details a case in August this year in which a military unit allegedly killed 11 men, including eight who had travelled home for Eid celebrations, in the south-eastern province of Paktia.
None offered any resistance before being executed, the report said.
Afghan authorities and US forces have increased the use of paramilitary groups to combat a resurgent Taliban in the middle eastern country.
The US should work with the Afghan government to immediately disband all forces operating outside the ordinary military chain of command, the report said.
Ms Gossman said they should also cooperate with independent investigations of all allegations of war crimes and other human rights abuses.
Afghan security officials patrol, during an operation against the Taliban militants, in Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand province Source: EPA
"The US and Afghan governments should end this pathology and disband all irregular forces,” she said.
A United Nations report earlier this month found an increased number of civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan from July to September this year.
The tally - 1,174 deaths and 3,139 injured between 1 July until 30 September represents a 42 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Additional reporting by Evan Young.
