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Afghanistan Orders U.S. Troops to Leave Crucial Province Afghanistan Orders U.S. Troops to Leave Crucial Province
(35 minutes later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — The president of Afghanistan has given American Special Forces two weeks to leave the eastern province of Wardak because of accusations that Afghans working with the soldiers were torturing and abusing other Afghans. KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government on Sunday banned elite American forces from operating in a strategic province adjoining Kabul, citing complaints that Afghans working for American Special Forces have killed and tortured villagers in the area.
Speaking at a news conference, Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said that Sunday’s decision was made during a meeting of the National Security Council because of the reports. The ban is scheduled to go into effect in two weeks in the province, Maidan Wardak, which has long been seen as a crucial link in the defense of the capital against the Taliban. If fully enacted, it would effectively remove the American military’s main source of offensive firepower from the area, which lies southwest of Kabul and is used by the Taliban as a staging ground for attacks on Kabul.
Mr. Faizi said the government wanted the individuals accused of torture, whom he did not identify, to be handed over to the government. The order has even more potential significance with the scheduled withdrawal of regular American combat forces in Maidan Wardak. By late spring, American officials have said they expect almost all conventional troops in eastern Afghanistan to be focused on advising Afghan forces, leaving Special Operations units as the only offensive troops in the region.
Wardak is a restive province next to Kabul and has been the focus of counterinsurgency efforts. Coalition officials said they were alerted to the Afghan government’s decision on Sunday afternoon, shortly after it was made. But they were still seeking to clarify what it actually entailed and what accusations had prompted it, the officials said, declining to comment further.
The announcement came just days after NATO defense ministers said that they had made progress toward planning a military assistance mission in Afghanistan after the alliance’s combat role expires at the end of 2014. Afghan officials described the ban as a measure of last resort. Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said Afghanistan’s National Security Council decided to impose the ban after weeks of trying — and failing — to get answers from the coalition about accusations that Maidan Wardak residents were being killed or tortured or had disappeared.
A draft proposal discussed last week in Brussels for possible NATO operations in Afghanistan after 2014 envisions a force of up to 9,500 American troops and up to 6,000 more from other coalition nations, according to alliance officials, who stressed that no final decisions had been made. Other NATO officials said the combined American and allied force would be smaller — 8,000 to 12,000 troops. While the officials stressed that they preferred to work with the international forces, the move appeared to signal increasing willingness by the Afghans to publicly confront and limit the work of the coalition forces, if it was felt they were not acting in Afghanistan’s best interests.
The attacks were believed to have been attributed to either Afghans or Afghan-Americans working with American Special Forces, Mr. Faizi said, adding that Afghan defense officials have provided photographs and videos of the men to the coalition.
After seeing the evidence a few weeks ago, coalition officers seemed ready to cooperate, Mr. Faizi said, citing a briefing that Afghan defense officials had given to the Afghan National Security Council.
But soon after, the coalition’s position shifted, according to Mr. Faizi. Alliance officials said the men in question had disappeared or had never worked with American forces. Some coalition officers also questioned whether there had been any killings or torture, and whether anyone tied to the Americans was responsible.
Mr. Faizi expressed little doubt that someone or some group was killing and torturing Maidan Wardak residents. “People from the province, elders from villages, have come to Kabul so many times, and they have brought photographs and videos of their family members who have been tortured,” he said.
Mr. Faizi said the Afghan government simply wanted to investigate the allegations, adding that it was possible that people not connected to the coalition could be responsible, he said.
That, though, would raise another question. “Let’s imagine that the U.S. Special Forces are not involved,” Mr. Faizi said. “Then how come they have not once heard about this? How come they do not know who is doing this?” As for concerns that banning Special Forces from the province could reduce pressure on the Taliban, he said that the Afghan Army and police would “certainly be able to handle this work.”
He pointed out that the security situation had not improved in Maidan Wardak for years, even after the Special Forces stepped up their activity, most of which focuses on Taliban field commanders and other high-ranking officials. Nevertheless, Mr. Faizi said, the operations have failed to reduce the violence.
The violence, he said, had only worsened, and now “local people are blaming the U.S. Special Forces for every incident that is taking place there.”
“It is better to make the Special Forces withdraw from the province and let the local people understand that they are facing only Afghan forces,” he said. “That will bring clarity to the situation.”
Much of the Special Forces’ work in Afghanistan is highly classified, and it was not immediately clear if any of the elite troops were based in Maidan Wardak or if they simply flew in for operations.

Habib Zahori and Sangar Rahimi contributed from Kabul.