A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses US-backed Afghan forces trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of carrying out “summary executions and other grave abuses without accountability.” The study is based on testimonies of local residents, who said that the forces conducted unlawful night raids based on poor intelligence, resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians. The forces allegedly also targeted health care centers, while detainees are said to have been forcibly disappeared.
The CIA has dismissed the accusations as “likely false or exaggerated,” with a CIA spokesman claiming that the agency operates “in accordance with law and under a robust system of oversight” and that it “neither condone[s] nor would knowingly participate in illegal activities.”
Read more: CIA-trained Afghan forces ‘committed war crimes,’ report