{"id":175438,"date":"2020-12-21T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=175438"},"modified":"2020-12-19T06:55:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T06:55:16","slug":"the-cias-afghan-death-squads-for-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/12\/the-cias-afghan-death-squads-for-children\/","title":{"rendered":"The CIA\u2019s Afghan Death Squads for Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

A U.S.-Backed Militia That Kills Children May Be USA\u2019s Exit Strategy from Its Longest War<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The Bureau of Investigative Journalism<\/p><\/div>\n

18 Dec 2020 – <\/em>T<\/span>he buzz of a drone at night was the first sign of trouble.<\/p>\n

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Next came the roar of a larger, low-flying aircraft, which alerted residents of the Afghan village of Omar Khail that soldiers were nearby. Men in camouflage moved through the streets speaking Pashto and English. It was December 2018, and the air was frigid. They made their way to the madrassa, or religious school, where more than two dozen boys between the ages of 9 and 18 slept on the floors of several dormitory rooms.<\/p>\n

A neighbor watching from a window across the street saw a flash and heard a loud explosion as the front gate of the madrassa was blown open. Inside, the noise awakened 12-year-old Bilal, who was huddled in a room with nine other boys when an Afghan soldier burst through the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cWake up!\u201d the man yelled in Pashto, pointing at the boys one by one with the barrel of his rifle, which was mounted with a flashlight. A second soldier entered, chose the two tallest boys, and led them out the door. The first soldier turned to leave, but before he did, he issued a warning to the rest of the boys cowering before him: \u201cIf I find you in this madrassa again, we won\u2019t leave a single child alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bilal and the others squeezed together as far from the door as they could, with their backs to a large window facing a central courtyard. Many were in tears; others couldn\u2019t speak. From the hallway, Bilal heard words he recognized as English.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not going to let us live,\u201d a student murmured.<\/p>\n

In preparation for death, some of the boys recited the Muslim declaration of faith, known as the Shahada:\u00a0\u201cThere is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just then, the sound of automatic gunfire tore along the corridor. \u201cFor a very short time,\u201d Bilal said, it sounded like \u201cthere were many guns.\u201d Boys\u2019 screams came next, followed by two loud explosions. \u201cOne shook the whole building,\u201d said Bilal. \u201cWe didn\u2019t hear anything after this. Everyone was silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the sun rose hours later, Bilal and about a dozen other students remained crouching in silence, some still trembling with fear. Nearby, in two of the school\u2019s other rooms and in the basement, 12 more boys, their bodies mauled by bullets, lay crumpled on the floor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Afghanistan-The-Intercept-Quilty-1\"<\/p>\n

The main road through Wardak\u2019s Chak District, where night raids by the CIA-led 01 strike force unit and accompanying U.S. airstrikes killed more than a dozen civilians in 2018 and 2019. <\/strong>Photo: Andrew Quilty\/Agence Vu<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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T<\/span>he 12 boys killed in the madrassa at Omar Khail that winter night were among scores of civilians massacred during at least 10 previously undocumented night raids in the central Afghan province of Wardak. Beginning in December 2018 and continuing for at least a year, Afghan operatives believed to belong to an elite CIA-trained paramilitary unit known as 01, in partnership with U.S.\u00a0special operations forces and air power, unleashed a campaign of terror against civilians. This story is based on interviews with more than 50 Wardak residents, including 20 survivors and firsthand witnesses and 29 victims\u2019 relatives and local residents who witnessed the aftermath of the killings within hours of when they occurred. Some of those accounts were corroborated by local officials, analysts, and community representatives.<\/p>\n

The 10 raids resulted in the deaths of at least\u00a051 civilians, according to The Intercept\u2019s reporting.\u00a0In most cases, men and boys as young as 8, few of whom appear to have had any formal relationship with the Taliban, were summarily executed. Some died alone, others alongside friends and family. Several raids were accompanied by airstrikes or, in at least one instance, the detonation of hand-laid explosives targeting structures known to be occupied by civilians.<\/p>\n

The Intercept has changed the names of those killed in the raids and of the survivors, witnesses, and victims\u2019 relatives we spoke with to shield them from further harm. Some requested anonymity because they feared retribution from pro-government forces, while others worried the Taliban would punish them for speaking candidly to a journalist.<\/p>\n

Residents from four districts in Wardak \u2014 Nerkh, Chak, Sayedabad, and Daymirdad \u2014 spoke of a string of massacres, executions, mutilation, forced disappearances, attacks on medical facilities, and airstrikes targeting structures known to house civilians. The victims, according to these residents, were rarely Taliban.\u00a0<\/strong>Yet the Afghan unit and its American masters have never been publicly held accountable by either the Afghan or U.S. governments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Americans \u201cstep on all the rules of war, human rights, all the things they said they\u2019d bring to Afghanistan,\u201d said\u00a0Wardak provincial council head Akhtar Mohammad Tahiri. They are \u201cconducting themselves as terrorists. They show terror and violence and think they\u2019ll bring control this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Known collectively as strike force units because of their targeted, aggressive methods, the shadowy CIA-backed militias nominally fall under the purview of the National Directorate of Security, or NDS, Afghanistan\u2019s intelligence service. They are comprised of 01, which operates primarily in central Afghan provinces including Wardak and Logar; 02, which is based in Jalalabad and works in the eastern part of the country; 03, also known as the Kandahar Strike Force, which operates in the south; and 04, which conducts raids in Kunar and adjacent provinces<\/a> in the northeast. Two units in the southeast, the Khost Protection Force and the Shaheen Forces<\/a>, the latter of which emerged in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika in 2019, are believed to\u00a0function under similar authority.<\/p>\n

The units\u2019 American CIA advisers go by pseudonyms or call signs rather than names. They not only train Afghan unit members, but also choose their targets, which the Americans call \u201cjackpots\u201d; issue detailed pre-mission briefings; and accompany Afghan paramilitaries on the ground during raids. The Afghans and Americans are ferried to remote villages at night by American helicopters, and American assault aircraft hover overhead while they conduct their raids, providing lethal firepower that is sometimes directed at health clinics, madrassa dormitories, or civilian homes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Madrassa Killings<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n