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KABUL, Afghanistan The U.S. and Afghanistan signed a deal Sunday giving Afghans authority over raids of Afghan homes, resolving one of the most contentious issues between the two wartime allies.
The majority of these raids are nighttime operations in which U.S. and Afghan troops descend without warning on homes or residential compounds searching for insurgents.
The raids are widely resented by Afghans, and President Hamid Karzai had repeatedly called for a halt to all night raids by international forces. He said for months that they would have to stop before he would sign a much-anticipated pact governing the long-term U.S. presence in Afghanistan.
Both countries have said that they wanted that bigger deal signed before the NATO summit in May, so the night raids agreement announced Sunday makes hitting that deadline possible.
Karzai has argued that night raids by international troops make civilian casualties more likely and that U.S. soldiers are disrespectful in the way they conduct the operations. The U.S. military has said such operations are essential for intelligence gathering and for capturing Taliban and al-Qaida commanders.
Sunday's deal appeared to be a compromise: a panel of Afghan security officials get authority to decide what raids will take place and U.S. forces still play a large part in operations, including entering Afghan homes if needed. The Americans also now have an Afghan partner that will be held equally to account 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 U.S. 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.
Similar agreements with other NATO nations would also have been endangered if one had not been signed with the United States.
The memorandum was signed in front of reporters by Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak and the commander of U.S. forces, Gen. John Allen.
"This is a landmark day in (the) rule of law," Allen told reporters. He said that Afghans are now "in the lead on two of the most important issues: capturing the terrorists and ensuring they remain behind bars."
Washington says 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.
However, it's unclear whether Afghan forces have so far had much authority even in operations that are nominally "Afghan-led." Sometimes this designation means only that an Afghan soldier is first through the door, or that officials have rubber stamped a mission just as it starts.
*shrugs* we've been de-balled and everyone there knows it.
get them out, NOW.
Your tax dollars at work
Night raid. The phrase bears with it images of both daring and terror from a SEAL team taking down Osama bin Laden to a sinister midnight knock on the door in Soviet times. In Afghanistan, the night raid is altogether more miserable, resulting often in civilian deaths and worsening relations between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the U.S. The collateral damage of coalition raids has also been a stumbling block toward an accord over the nature of the announced U.S. troop withdrawal at the end of 2014. Early Sunday evening that obstacle was removed with a stroke of the pen when General John Allen, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and General Abdul Rahim Wardak, the Afghan Defense Minister, signed an agreement that only Afghan forces can raid homes at night.
Now, along with the transfer of the Parwan Detention Facility on March 8 to Afghan control, two of the final barriers preventing an agreement over a post-2014 strategic partnership have been removed. This has left the White House, Pentagon and Afghan officials all heralding another milestone toward Afghan sovereignty, which will pave the way toward an eventual U.S. withdrawal. But according to some observers, this hasty American pullback may have far less rosy consequences. A closer look at the memorandum of understanding on night raids obtained by TIME shows that the U.S. gets nothing out of the agreement. What this could mean in the long run is that Karzai may have shot himself in the foot since he may no longer be able to trade access to intelligence gathered through raids for foreign aid money. It also points to the White House's waning appetite to fight the war in Afghanistan.
The agreement signed Sunday says that only an all-Afghan body called the Afghan Operational Coordination Group can approve night raids and that these raids will be carried out only by the Afghan Special Operations Unit, which will be made up of Afghan army, police and intelligence personnel. Searches of houses must be done in accordance with Afghan law, and houses will only be searched by Afghan forces. Importantly, the document also says that U.S. forces can support "only as required or requested." Afghan judicial and investigative mechanisms will be established to issue "timely and operationally secure judicial authorizations." And, besides promising to help train and improve the Afghan raid squads, the U.S. will also be expected to cooperate in a full range of support roles from intelligence sharing to air support and transport. Finally, the agreement says that any Afghans detained outside of these Afghan raids are to be released or transferred to Afghan authorities.
