Karzai orders U.S. special forces to leave key strategic province

PanARMENIAN.Net - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, Feb 24 ordered all U.S. Special Operations forces to leave a strategically important province in two weeks, alleging that they had been involved in the torture and murder of “innocent people.”

According to The Washington Post, Karzai’s blunt statement, which did not provide specific evidence or cite judicial determinations, also demanded an immediate halt to Special Operations activity in the province, Wardak, which lies southwest of Kabul and has been contested by Taliban fighters and other insurgents.

The announcement appeared to come as a surprise to American military officials, and it remained unclear whether Karzai would follow through on the order or would perhaps, as with past edicts aimed at restricting U.S.-led operations, reach a negotiated agreement with NATO forces.

Last week, Karzai banned his forces from calling in NATO airstrikes in populated areas, citing civilian casualties. But Sunday’s statement was Karzai’s most acerbic in recent months against the international community, following a period during which the Afghan president has been largely conciliatory with the foreign nations that pay the biggest portion of his government’s bills.

“After a thorough discussion, it became clear that armed individuals named as U.S. special force[s] stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people,” the statement said.

“A recent example in the province is an incident in which nine people were disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force,” the statement said. In a separate incident, “a student was taken away at night from his home,” it said, and his “tortured body with throat cut was found two days later under a bridge.”

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said in a statement that it takes abuse allegations seriously, adding: “This is an important issue that we must discuss with our Afghan counterparts.”

At a news conference Sunday, Karzai spokesman Amal Faizi sought to clarify the president’s statement, saying the abuse allegations were connected to Afghans working “within these special forces groups.”

“Those Afghans in these armed groups who are working with the U.S. Special Forces, the defense minister asked for an explanation of who they are,” Faizi said. “Those individuals should be handed over to the Afghan side so that we can further investigate.”