KABUL, Afghanistan – The top U.S. general in Afghanistan promised President Hamid Karzai to tone down aggressive tactics in sweeps for Taliban-led insurgents and to ensure U.S. troops are more sensitive to Afghans’ conservative ways, the military said Monday.
Already fending off allegations of prisoner abuse, Gen. David Barno agreed that his men would try to smash in fewer doors and handcuff fewer villagers to ease resentment and foster goodwill, a military spokesman said.
“The coalition recognizes that its forces are guests in Afghanistan,” Maj. Scott Nelson said.
Nearly three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. military is still searching for al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, but Nelson said the new tactics would not hamper the hunt for militants. The changes will “improve Afghan and coalition cooperation in ridding the country of terrorists,” he said.
Local leaders have long complained of heavily armed American soldiers and allied Afghan militiamen descending on villages in the dead of night, leaving behind a trail of wrecked property, wrongful detentions and trampled customs.
Rights groups say such tactics may have caused unnecessary deaths and stoked sympathy for Taliban rebels who continue to defy the 18,000-soldier force under Barno’s command.
The military previously had bristled at criticism of search tactics, pointing out that Afghanistan is still a war zone more than two years after the hardline Islamic regime’s ouster. Two U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb Saturday.
But Barno agreed to soften methods after Karzai called him to his Kabul palace last week.
Barno said his troops will now consult local officials and tribal elders before launching sweeps and will get elders to first ask residents to open their doors, to avoid having to kick their way in. Troops also will receive training in “local customs and courtesies.”
The U.S. commander also agreed to a raft of measures relating to prisoners, which is another sore issue since the scandal over abuse of detainees in Iraq drew fresh attention to complaints of mistreatment in Afghanistan.
The military will pay for reconstruction projects in areas where people were detained and subsequently released; Afghans will be told to go to the international Red Cross for information on prisoners; and an Afghan-U.S. body will be set up to “resolve detainee issues,” Nelson said.
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