© Andrew Quilty/For The Washington PostDarwar Khan prays over the graves of relatives who were killed during a night raid conducted by the CIA's Khost Protection Force in the village of Gurbuz District, Khost province, on Nov. 4.
Afghan officials say that the KPF conducted a series of home raids under the guise of counterterrorism operations against the homes of totally innocent civilians, and killed at least six of them. Two US "advisers," apparently CIA, were present during the raids.
The CIA has come under fire for using the KPF as a virtual proxy force, ordering them around the province on arbitrary arrest missions, detaining people without charges (despite not being a police force in and of themselves), and torturing them.
This is basically par for the course for US-backed factions within Afghanistan, but the KPF is a much larger, more concentrated force, and has gotten away with operating this way for years because the Khost Province has such a heavy Taliban presence. Increasingly, however, even the Afghan government sees the group's operations as fueling unrest among tribal leaders more than doing any real harm to the Taliban.
Khost province and Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Comment: As reported here: An American official defended the Khost pursuit team as "one of the most effective elements fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan." If the main purpose for the establishment of this group was to fight the Taliban, then why are they not targeting the Taliban, but are terrorizing and murdering innocent civilians instead? Is it any wonder that the Khost Province has such a heavy Taliban presence? This is just more proof that the CIA has no intention to improve the situation in Afghanistan. See also: