An American Middle East expert says the call for an investigation into the deaths of 18 people allegedly killed by US forces in Afghanistan is �œwelcome”.
On Wednesday, Rolling Stone magazine reported that US forces were implicated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians in Nerkh district, Wardak province in late 2012 and early 2013
�œThe Rolling Stone article is a welcome call for increased scrutiny of these civilian killings”, said American author and Middle East expert William Beeman in a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch has called on the US government to investigate thoroughly and impartially the deaths of the Afghan civilians.
In November 2012, many local residents claimed they were connected to operations by a new US Special Forces unit in the district, known as ODA 3124.
�œThe United States has been dealing with killing of civilians in Afghanistan for the entire length of the Afghan conflict,” Beeman said.
He also pointed out that the US has many soldiers �œthat are too young and too inexperienced to actually be in combat situations.”
�œThey also are heavily stressed because some of them have been on several tours of duty, many, many more than had taken place in any conflict,” the professor of anthropology at The University of Minnesota said.
�œWe already have tried several soldiers here in the United States for the killing of Afghan citizens in stressful situations where they just kind of go crazy and take their guns to killing women and children,” he added.
American officials denied US involvement to several media outlets after the human remains in Nerkh began to be unearthed in April.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for American forces to leave Wardak after protests about the abuses erupted in the province. The forces withdrew from Nerkh in April.
Generally, the US is slow to convict its troops of war crimes and when a punishment is imposed for such crimes, it usually takes the form of life in prison or house arrest.
In August, a US soldier who murdered 16 Afghan civilians in a shooting spree last year, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, was sentenced to life in prison.
Meanwhile, Washington is insisting that any US troops left in Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal of foreign forces from the country must enjoy legal immunity from Afghan courts.
AN/ISH
Source: Press TV