Some Afghan prisoners detained in the capital by three US citizens, who were apparently waging a private war against terror, have been released, officials said yesterday.
Their captors -- three Americans, along with four Afghans working as their translators -- were arrested on Monday by Afghan intelligence officers in Kabul's Kart-i-Parwan district.
The group had been holding eight "civilians" in their private jail in a house not far from the upmarket Intercontinental Hotel in west Kabul.
"After we found out the men they were holding were innocent people, we released them," Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told reporters.
However, a senior intelligence official, who asked not to be named, said that only three of those detained by the Americans had been released. The remainder were in the custody of intelligence agents.
The Americans and their Afghan assistants had also been handed over to intelligence agents for interrogation, Mashal said.
"The investigation is continuing -- right now we only know that they were running a private jail," another intelligence official who also requested anonymity, told reporters.
Only one of the three Americans was carrying a US passport, he said.
The US State Department Thursday said that the three men were American citizens.
Department spokesman Richard Boucher identified two of them as Jonathan Idema and Brent Bennett but said the third man would not be identified because he had not signed a Privacy Act waiver.
"As far as what they are being held for and what charges might be proffered, I'd have to refer you to the Afghan authorities for that," Boucher said.
"Let me make clear, first of all, the US government does not employ or sponsor these men."
Earlier in the week, the American-led coalition force hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Afghanistan had warned in a press release that Idema had allegedly represented himself as an "American government and/or military official."
Afghan authorities have said that the three men were running a private jail in Kabul as part of their personal war against terror.
"Three foreigners who had formed a self-made group and were claiming their aims were to act against those carrying out terrorist attacks, have been arrested," Interior Ministry Ali Ahmed Jalali said Thursday.
"They did not have any legal connection with anyone and the US was also chasing them," Jalali said. "They are actually rebels."
Some 20,000 US-led troops are in Afghanistan to hunt and kill al-Qaeda and Taliban militants such as fugitive founder of the ousted regime Mullah Mohammed Omar and the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks in the States, Osama bin Laden.
However, since leading the offensive which toppled the Taliban regime for harbouring bin Laden in late 2001, the force has been unable to capture all militants and attacks are regularly carried out against US and Afghan soldiers, humanitarian and reconstruction workers and NATO-led peacekeepers.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the