CIA-Backed Afghan Militias Kill with Impunity, Rights Group Says

• CIA-Backed Afghan Militias Kill with Impunity, Rights Group Says
  by AFP/ec, via https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news
  KABUL: CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary groups operating with impunity are summarily executing civilians during botched nighttime raids and are responsible for the disappearances of suspects, a rights group said on Thursday (Oct 31).
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  The secretive militias, whose support from America’s Central Intelligence Agency continues a tradition stemming from the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s, have long hunted the Taliban and are seen as an important tool as the war against the insurgents intensifies.
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  But their rough tactics have long sparked controversy across Afghanistan.
  In a report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented 14 cases from late 2017 to mid-2019 in which it said CIA-backed “strike groups” committed serious abuses during night raids, such as one in the southeastern province of Paktia in which a paramilitary unit killed 11 men, including eight who were home for the Eid holidays.
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  The CIA disputed the HRW report, saying many of the claims against Afghan militias were “likely false or exaggerated.” In several cases, the raids – usually in Taliban-controlled areas – were accompanied by air strikes that “indiscriminately or disproportionately” killed civilians, HRW said, and sometimes, troops detained men and didn’t tell families where they were being held.
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