The US and Afghanistan signed a deal on Sunday that gives Afghans authority over raids of Afghan homes, resolving one of the most contentious issues between the two allies.
The majority of these raids are nighttime operations in which US and Afghan troops descend without warning on homes or residential compounds searching for insurgents.
The raids are widely resented by Afghans, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for a halt to all night raids by international forces.
He said for months that they must stop before he would sign a much-anticipated pact governing the long-term US presence in Afghanistan.
Both countries have said that they wanted that deal signed before the NATO summit in May, so the night raids agreement announced on Sunday makes hitting that deadline possible.
Karzai has argued that night raids by international troops make civilian casualties more likely and that US soldiers are disrespectful in the way they conduct the operations.
The US military has said such operations are essential for intelligence gathering and for capturing Taliban and al-Qaeda commanders.
The deal on Sunday appeared to be a compromise: A panel of Afghan security officials get the authority to decide what raids will take place, but US forces will still play a large part in operations, including entering Afghan homes if needed.
The US also now has an Afghan partner that will be held equally accountable if there are civilian casualties or allegations of mistreatment.
The resolution of this dispute is a key step toward finalizing the long-term “strategic partnership” to govern US forces in Afghanistan after the majority of combat forces leave in 2014. The long-term pact is seen as important for assuring the Afghan people that they will not be abandoned by their international allies.
The memorandum was signed in front of reporters by Afghan Minister of Defense General Abdul Rahim Wardak and US Commander General John Allen.
“This is a landmark day in [the] rule of law,” Allen told reporters.
Afghans are now “in the lead on two of the most important issues: capturing the terrorists and ensuring they remain behind bars,” he said.
Washington said that the -foreigner-dominated raids that Karzai so frequently condemns are already a rarity. More than 97 percent of night operations are combined operations involving Afghan forces and almost 40 percent of night operations are now Afghan-led.
According to the document, all “special operations” will have to be reviewed and approved by a panel from the Afghan military, government and intelligence services. The definition of a “special operation” is left vague, but appears to apply to night raids as well as other operations that involve going into Afghan homes.
Since the document only governs certain types of raids, it leaves open the possibility of other types of unilateral US operations that do not involve going into homes. US officials declined to comment on whether there were US operations that did not fall under this agreement. For example, the CIA conducts operations in Afghanistan outside of the military’s purview, and it is not clear whether they would be affected.
Any disagreements would be resolved by a joint US-Afghan committee including the Afghan defense minister and the US forces commander, the agreement said. It did not indicate how this committee would make decisions.
The agreement says Afghan forces will conduct home searches and that US forces will be allowed to enter private compounds “only as required or requested.”
The US appears to have given in on a bid to take temporary custody of detainees, presumably for interrogation purposes, according to officials familiar with the talks. The agreement as signed says that the Afghan government will immediately take custody of detainees. The US will only interrogate them if asked by the Afghans, according to a US military official involved in the negotiations.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese