US Concerned By Taliban’s Retaliatory Killings of Former Members of Afghan Security Forces

The US State Department has expressed concern to Afghanistan International about the retaliatory killings of former Afghan security forces’ members by the Taliban.

However, the department added that there is no evidence of targeting local collaborators of Americans in Afghanistan.

The US State Department's media office, through an email sent a response to Afghanistan International's inquiry, emphasising that the department is deeply concerned about the killings and disappearances of members of the former Afghan security forces.

The US State Department, referring to a recent United Nations report on the killing of former military personnel by the Taliban, told Afghanistan International that Taliban members committed retaliatory killings and that the group has also been involved in disappearances of members of the former government's security forces in the months after entering Kabul.

The US State Department added in the note that the Taliban, after coming to power, promised a "general amnesty" and should remain committed to it.

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, there have occasionally been reports of the group's retaliation against former members of the Afghan security forces. The Taliban has always denied these reports.

However, the US State Department wrote in its note that there is no evidence that the Taliban specifically targeted those who collaborated with Americans in Afghanistan.

The department added in its note that the relocation and transfer operations for those Afghan citizens who qualify for legal immigration to the US are ongoing.

The department also said that responsible units have increased their capacity to expedite the transfer process and are trying to solve the problem of prolonged review times for their applications.

After the withdrawal of US forces in the summer of 2021, tens of thousands of Afghan citizens who collaborated with the US military and civilian agencies in Afghanistan were put at risk.

The US relocated more than 70,000 of these individuals in a special operation from Afghanistan to regional countries and then to the US. The relocation programme is still ongoing.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced in a report in August that despite the Taliban's general amnesty, over the past two years, 800 human rights violations against former security forces’ members have been recorded.

UNAMA reported at least 218 killings of former government officials and members of the former security forces’ members by the Taliban, none of whom have been arrested.