Group let out of Parwan detention centre by Hamid Karzai are accused by US military of killing Afghan and Nato forces.
Afghanistan has released 65 accused militants from a former US prison despite protests from the American military, which says the men are Taliban fighters who are likely to return to the battlefield to kill coalition and Afghan forces.
The move further strains relations between Washington and the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, whose increasingly anti-American rhetoric and refusal to sign a long-negotiated bilateral security deal have increased uncertainty before the withdrawal this year of most international combat troops.
Source: the guardian; The detention centre near Bagram airfield where 65 prisoners accused of fighting for the Taliban have been released. Photograph: David Guttenfelder/AP
Karzai ordered the release of the detainees several weeks ago, after his government took over the prison from US troops. The decision prompted angry denunciations from Washington. US forces in Afghanistan say some of the men are responsible for killing or wounding dozens of international and Afghan soldiers as well making bombs that have killed civilians.
The prisoners were freed just after 9am on Thursday from the Parwan detention facility near Bagram airfield, about 28 miles (45km) north of Kabul, according to the prison spokesman Major Nimatullah Khaki. They boarded a bus to leave the facility, laughing and smiling, he said.
The US has argued the detainees should face trial in Afghan courts, citing strong evidence against them, from DNA linking them to roadside bombs to explosive residue on their clothing, but Kabul has said there is insufficient proof to hold them.
Karzai has referred to the Parwan prison as a “Taliban-producing factory” where innocent Afghans are tortured into hating their country.
The US military late on Wednesday night issued a strongly worded statement condemning the imminent release, which it said would include detainees directly linked to attacks that had killed or wounded 32
US or coalition personnel and 23 Afghan security personnel or civilians.
A statement from the US embassy in Kabul on Thursday said the release was “deeply regrettable” and called on Karzai’s government to ensure those released did not commit new acts of violence.
“We requested a thorough review of each case. Instead, the evidence against them was never seriously considered,” the embassy statement said, adding: “The Afghan government bears responsibility for the
results of its decision.”
The Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zair Azimi would not comment on US concerns. “Our responsibility is the protection of the prisoners. That is all,” Azimi said by telephone.
The 65 were among 88 detainees at the facility who are the subject of dispute between Kabul and Washington. The US says they are dangerous members of the Taliban insurgency, the Haqqani group of militants and other Islamic radicals bent on fighting foreign and Afghan government forces.
Among those believed to have walked free on Thursday morning was Mohammad Wali, who the US military says is a suspected Taliban explosives expert who placed roadside bombs targeting Afghan and international forces. The military said Wali had been biometrically linked to two roadside explosions and had a latent fingerprint match on another improvised explosive device. He had also tested positive for explosives residue.
Others in the group include Nek Mohammad who the US says was captured with extensive weapons and a man identified as Ehsanullah, who is claimed to have been biometrically matched to a roadside bomb and who tested positive for explosives residue.
The US military had formally disputed the prisoners’ release, but an Afghan review board had in effect overruled its challenge. The detainees’ release has been in the works for weeks, and comes as Karzai has taken an increasingly hostile tone toward the US before the withdrawal of Nato combat troops at the end of 2014.
The president has refused to sign a bilateral security agreement that would allow about 10,000 US troops and about 6,000 from allied nations to remain in Afghanistan past 2014, largely to help train Afghanistan
security forces to take over the fight against the Taliban and other militants.
Karzai had tentatively endorsed the bilateral security deal after it was completed last October, but after it was approved by a council of tribal elders known as the Loya Jirga in November, he refused to sign it, saying he wanted his successor to make the decision after the 5 April presidential election. Karzai cannot run because he is ineligible to serve a third term.
The US wants the deal signed as soon as possible because it needs time to prepare to keep thousands of US troops in the country for up to a decade. Nato allies have said they will not stay if the Americans pull out.
