Afghan President Hamid Karzai has given U.S.  special forces two weeks to leave a key battleground province after some U.S.  soldiers in the region were found to have tortured or killed innocent people,  the president’s spokesman said on Sunday.

The decision by Karzai could further  complicate negotiations between the U.S. and Afghanistan over the presence of  Americans troops in the country once most NATO forces leave by the end of  2014.

Speaking at a news conference in Kabul,  Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said villagers in Wardak province had lodged a  series of complaints about operations conducted by U.S. special forces and a  group of Afghans working with them.

Time to go: U.S. special forces are being expelled from Wardak province in two weeks amid claims locals have been tortured and killed, the Afghan government said on Sunday

The decision was reached at a Sunday meeting  of the Afghan National Security Council, chaired by Karzai, Faizi  said.

His spokesman said: ‘The Ministry of Defense  was assigned to make sure all U.S. special forces are out of the province within  two weeks.

‘After a thorough discussion, it became clear  that armed individuals named as U.S. special forces stationed in Wardak province  were engaging in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent  people.’

One example was cited where a student was  kidnapped in the middle of the night before his tortured body was found two days  later with his throat slit.

Sunday’s announcement came days after  the  Afghan leader issued a decree banning all Afghan security forces  from using  NATO air strikes in residential areas, in a bid to curb  civilian  casualties.

That was in response to an operation in Kunar  targeting four Taliban members which resulted in the deaths of ten civilians,  including five children, during an air strike.

Karzai has long warned his Western backers  that the killing of civilians could sap support for the foreign troops in the  country and fuel the insurgency.

Source: Daily Mail

 

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