3 Afghans accused of insider attacks to be freed
KABUL, Afghanistan — Three Afghans accused of involvement in the deaths of American troops in socalled insider attacks are among more than 300 high-value Taliban prisoners that the Afghan government is set to release to facilitate direct talks with the militant group, according to a senior Afghan official and a Kabul-based diplomat briefed on the matter.
The United States has not publicly objected to the expected release of the three prisoners; instead, negotiators are exploring other options, including temporarily placing the inmates under house arrest, the two officials said, both speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The U.S. response puts it at odds with its Western allies: France and Australia have publicly opposed the release of at least three other prisoners accused of carrying out separate attacks against French and Australian nationals, including humanitarian workers.
Since a peace deal between the United States and the Taliban was inked in February, U.S. officials have applied consistent, intense pressure on the Afghan government to quickly release all those remaining of the 5,000 Taliban prisoners cited in the deal as a precondition to talks.
It was unclear what attacks the three prisoners are alleged to have been involved in or how many Americans were killed. Insider attacks are assaults by Taliban infiltrators of the Afghan security forces against foreign forces. (They’re often grouped together with “green on blue” attacks — assaults on foreign forces by Afghan forces with no known Taliban link.)
The State Department did not respond to questions about the prisoners. Resolute Support, the U.S. military command in Kabul, and the Department of Defense referred questions to the State Department, which also declined to comment. The Afghan government said it could not immediately provide further information on the matter.
A senior Afghan government official said he was “surprised” by Washington’s support for the release of Taliban prisoners linked to the killings of U.S. and foreign forces. But he said the consensus among Afghan government officials is that U.S. Afghan policy is now largely being dictated by the Trump administration’s desire to show voters ahead of the November presidential election that he is ending the war in Afghanistan.