US-backed militias kill civilians in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch says

Afghan-backed US-backed militias are arbitrarily killing civilians in overnight attacks and enforced disappearances, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

Afghan-backed US-backed militias are arbitrarily killing civilians in overnight attacks and enforced disappearances, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The organization said in a report published today, it analyzed 14 attacks by these “strike groups” supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) between the end of 2017 and mid-2019, noting that during these attacks committed serious violations, some amounting to war crimes.

In one of these attacks in Paktia province in August, a paramilitary member killed eleven men in one village, witnesses said, adding that none of the men showed resistance.

In many cases, the attacks, generally in areas controlled by the Taliban terrorist movement, were accompanied by air strikes that killed civilians “indiscriminately and unequally in force,” it said.

CIA-backed paramilitary groups have been active in Afghanistan since the war against the Soviet army in the 1980s.