Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered the Defence Ministry to take control of night raids, one of the most controversial tactics used by foreign troops fighting the Taliban, in a move likely to stoke tensions between Kabul and its Western backers. NATO-led forces defended the night-time operations as “indispensable”, but also said they supported Karzai’s aim of making them Afghan-led and were working to achieve this.
Karzai, who has previously riled US and NATO leaders with criticism of night raids, said in a statement from his office that Afghan troops should be carrying out the sensitive night raids themselves. “President Hamid Karzai ordered the Defence Ministry to prevent foreign troops from uncoordinated and arbitrary operations and bring night raids under its control,” the statement said. “The president stresses that special operations and night raids must be independently conducted by Afghan troops.”
Afghans say the raids, carried out in darkness on houses suspected of harbouring insurgents or being used as a store for weapons, often lead to civilian casualties. Foreign troops have defended them as key to gaining ground against insurgents, cutting down the leaders of a movement with more territory and influence than at any time since 2001. “We know we would not have seen the gains and progress made to date without the conduct of targeted, intelligence-driven night operations,” a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
