Afghan officials have reportedly found the footless body of a local man who went missing a half-year ago. The corpse was unearthed near the former A-Team US Special Forces base — where detainees were tortured and killed, locals claim.
Authorities alleged that the grisly discovery is directly
connected to Zakaria Kandahari, a notorious wartime collaborator
who Afghan officials believe has US citizenship.
Kandahari reportedly led a death squad that terrorized locals in
Wardak Province, using the A-Team base in Nerkh District, a
one-hour drive from Kabul, as a permanent residence.
The mutilated body was discovered by ditch diggers about 200
yards from the perimeter of Nerkh base in Wardak Province, the New
York Times reported. The base was previously occupied by the A-Team
US Special Forces unit, which withdrew in March. Rhe Nerkh base
compound is currently occupied by Afghan Special Forces.
According to district governor Mohammad Hanif Hanafi, the corpse
was found packed in a military-style black body bag. The victim was
identified as Sayid Mohammad, a local resident who was allegedly
seen being taken to an US base in November 2012.
This is not the first time that the partial remains and clothing
of a missing person have been found near Nerkh base, Afghan
officials said. A dismembered body was previously found in a
garbage container just outside the US base.
An anonymous Afghan investigator for the Defense Ministry told
the NYT that he has a list of names of 17 people who went missing
in Nerkh District in Wardak Province between November and December
2012, when Kandahari’s squad conducted operations such as detaining
suspects and bringing them to the US Special Forces base.
The seized persons were reportedly never seen alive again. Nine
of their bodies, including that of Sayid Mohammad, were found; the
other eight remain missing.
The torture squad
The recently unearthed victim was the same man previously seen
in a classified video recording made last year. US officials
familiar with the matter said it depicts Mohammad being repeatedly
kicked by the chief interpreter at the Nerkh base — Kandahari.
Kandahari is on Afghanistan’s most-wanted list for prisoner
abuse, torture and murder. Kabul claimed the US sheltered
Kandahari; the US Army has denied the accusations.
The US Army has not denied that Kandahari was previously on
their payroll, but maintains that the torture video was made after
he parted with the A-Team to operate a rogue Afghan unit, and that
he is not a US citizen. The US Military described Kandahari as a
“freelance interpreter” who joined the American Special Forces
voluntarily and lived at their base out of gratitude.
Over the past year, Kandahari and his henchmen have been seen
throughout Wardak Province wearing NATO uniforms while riding on
quad bikes in search of alleged insurgents.
Precious hangman
Last March, hundreds of Afghans — watched by a considerable
number of armed riot police — marched to parliament in Kabul, demanding the
withdrawal of US Special Forces from Wardak Province. The
demonstrators were infuriated by reports of civilians being
tortured and killed; Kandahari’s name first went public amid these
demonstrations.
Following the protests, Afghan authorities demanded the US
deliver the alleged criminal to Kabul. The US refused to turn over Kandahari to Afghan
authorities.
US Military authorities claimed that Kandahari had escaped, and
that they knew nothing about his whereabouts. In response, an
infuriated President Hamid Karzai demanded that the US Special
Operations forces leave Wardak. A compromise was later reached, and
only the infamous A-Team base was removed.
An unidentified Afghan investigator told the New York Times that
“there is no question” that Kandahari was directly involved in
torture and murder, but asks, “Who recruited him, gave him his
salary, his weapons? Who kept him under their protection?”
The official also expressed doubts that Kandahari could have
left the base on his own, since “He was such a criminal that he
could not stay one hour outside the base by himself.”
US Military officials reported that they conducted thorough
investigations into the disappearances and murders “of at least
15 people” in Wardak Province, none of which revealed evidence
that American soldiers were involved in such crimes. However, the
results of these investigations have not been made public.
The treatment of Afghans by US troops and their collaborators has been a perpetual
stumbling block for US-Afghan relations; the ‘steal and kill’ case
of Kandahari could well be the final straw in the 11-plus years of
the Afghan War.
This article originally appeared on : RT