Afghans protest against U.S. forces

Special Ops still in troubled province. Clerics’ statement echoes that used by the Taliban.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The continued presence of U.S. Special Operations troops in Wardak province, against the wishes of the Afghan government, brought demonstrators to the capital on Saturday and provoked a strongly worded denunciation from Muslim clerics.

President Hamid Karzai had given the Americans until March 10 to remove all Special Operations troops from the province, after complaints about night raids in which victims disappeared. In two cases, local officials and residents contend, bodies later showed up beheaded.

U.S. forces are still in the province, and the top U.S. commander, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., said that despite public demands by Karzai for such a withdrawal, “he has not issued a directive to the force and he realizes that we’re working this as quickly as we can,” referring to a longer-term plan to hand over authority to Afghan officials. U.S. officials have confirmed that no withdrawal of the Special Operations troops is currently under way.

On Saturday, the influential Ulema Council, whose members are appointed by Karzai and represent all of the country’s Islamic clerics, issued a threatening statement demanding the withdrawal from Wardak as well as a transfer of the U.S.-controlled prison at Bagram to Afghan control.

“If the Americans once again do not honor their commitments and keep on disobeying, then this will be considered as an occupation, and they may expect to see a reaction to their action.”

The statement referred to U.S. forces in Afghanistan as “infidels,” echoing language used by the Taliban.

Also on Saturday, 300 demonstrators from Wardak province staged a noisy but peaceful demonstration calling for Karzai’s order to be obeyed. Some were apparently relatives of people who disappeared in raids by Afghans who work alongside the Americans in Wardak, and they carried photographs of nine people who had disappeared after one of the night operations.

“We want our missing men, dead or alive,” one young man screamed over a megaphone.

A joint investigation by the Afghan government and the U.S.-led coalition was begun to determine the fate of those nine, but has offered no evidence yet about what happened. Human rights officials confirmed they had disappeared with no trace.

Wardak province is the western gateway to Kabul, but insurgents hold sway in many remote areas. There is little presence of regular U.S. military units, so Special Operations troops, with Afghan special forces units, carry out the bulk of counterinsurgency efforts there.

Karzai has not made any further remarks on the subject, although he held an “Open Jirga” inside the presidential palace with elders in which he touched on both the Wardak and Bagram issues on Thursday. A full transcript was not available, but in excerpts issued by his press office, Karzai was quoted in a relatively conciliatory vein: “the president called relations between Afghanistan and America complicated and said that the recent problems in relations, such as lack of clarity in the fight against terrorism, complete transfer of Bagram prison to Afghan sovereignty, continuation of civilian casualties and lack of respect to national sovereignty of Afghanistan have caused problems between the two countries.”