US bomb ‘an atrocity against Afghans’

Former president decries the use of Afghanistan as a weapons testing ground and Kabul’s approval of strike

KABUL // Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai says the US used Afghanistan as a weapons testing ground, and called the recent strike with its largest non- nuclear bomb “an immense atrocity against the Afghan people”.

Last week, US forces dropped the GBU- 43, or Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, in eastern Nangarhar province, killing 95 militants.

Mr Karzai said his country “was used very disrespectfully by the US to test its weapons of mass destruction”.

After the bombing, the office of Afghan president Ashraf Ghani said there had been “close coordination” between the US military and Kabul over the operation, and that the US had been careful to avoid civilian casualties.

But Mr Karzai criticised the Afghan government for allowing the bomb strike.

“How could a government of a country allow the use of a weapon of mass destruction on its own territory?” he asked.

“Whatever the reason, whatever the cause, how could they allow that? It just unimaginable.”

The strike was carried out last Thursday morning against an ISIL tunnel complex, which Afghan forces had tried to assault repeatedly in recent weeks, Afghan officials said. The complex was carved into a mountain.

American and Afghan forces have been battling the Taliban for more than 15 years, but the US military used its largest conventional bomb against ISIL, which has a far smaller but growing presence in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump has pledged to aggressively confront ISIL.

Mr Trump called the operation a “very, very successful mission” but Mr Karzai had harsh words for him. “My message to president Trump today is that he has committed an immense atrocity against the Afghan people, against fellow human beings,” he said.

“If the American government sees us as human beings, then they have committed a crime against fellow human beings. But if they treat us as less than human beings, well, of course they can do whatever they want.”

Mr Karzai said that one of the fundamental reasons he refused to sign the bilateral security agreement with the US when he was the president was specifically to prevent such action.

“I told the people of Afghanistan in the Loya Jirga [Grand Assembly] that we must not sign the bilateral security agreement with the US, that we must not give them bases until the day they bring peace to Afghanistan,” he said.

“Why would the Afghan people want to give the US bases? For what? To continue the war in Afghanistan, to become more insecure, to lose peace forever, to suffer, to receive more bombs, to receive a weapon of mass destruction? Or for security, for peace and for a better life?” Lt Gen H R McMaster, the US national security adviser, met Mr Ghani during his visit to Afghanistan on Sunday.

Mr Ghani’s office said the two discussed mutual counter-terrorism, security and economic development.

The US estimates that 600 to 800 ISIL fighters are in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. US forces have concentrated on fighting them while also supporting Afghan forces against the Taliban. Washington has more than 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, training local forces and conducting counter-terrorism operations.

Gen McMaster arrived in Pakistan yesterday on an unannounced visit, a day after he hinted that the US could take a tougher stance with Islamabad.

It was the first visit by a top member of president Trump’s administration to the militancy-hit country, which Kabul routinely accuses of providing a safe haven to the Afghan Taliban. Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s office said Lt Gen McMaster had “assured the prime minister that the new administration was committed to strengthening bilateral relations and working with Pakistan to achieve peace and stability in Afghanistan and in the wider South Asian region”.

‘ How could a government allow the use of a weapon of mass destruction on its own territory? Hamid Karzai Former Afghan president