Raiding a suspected safehouse in Afghanistan -c

The Afghanistan night raids were a military tactic employed by the United States and Afghan

special forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

during the War in Afghanistan that lasted from 2001 to 2021. The coalition forces in Afghanistan maintain the

Joint Prioritized Effects List The Joint Prioritized Effects List or JPEL is a list of individuals who coalition forces in Afghanistan try to capture or kill. The Task Force 373 is working through the list. According to the Afghan War Diary German troops listed Shirin Agha wi ...

(JPEL) of targets their special forces try to capture or kill. Using

night vision Night vision is the ability to see in low-light conditions, either naturally with scotopic vision or through a night-vision device. Night vision requires both sufficient spectral range and sufficient intensity range. Humans have poor night vi ...

equipment, US and Afghan special forces would raid the suspected households of targets on the Joint Prioritized Effects List. The operations were controversial, due to issues like civilian casualties.

Controversy

American generals have argued that these raids were a "critical" part of achieving success in the war. Afghan president Hamid Karzai has argued that they impinge upon Afghanistan's sovereignty and has called for them to be halted. Human rights workers were concerned that the raids killed a large number of civilians bystanders, who weren't on the list. In addition they were concerned that individuals ended up on the list due to weak circumstantial evidence, or false denunciations triggered by greed, or long-standing tribal rivalries. Afghan journalist Anand Gopal described a night raid intended to capture an official of the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture who had been denounced. He wasn't home, but during the course of the raid two of his cousins who also lived in his family compound were killed, and a third cousin was seized and disappeared into US custody. Hamid Karzai's cousin Haji Yar Mohammad was killed during a night raid on his house in March 2011. Officials on the

Afghanistan High Peace Council The Afghanistan High Peace Council (HPC) ( prs, رئیس شورای عالی صلح افغانستان) was a body of the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program, established by Hamid Karzai to negotiate with elements of the Taliban. The HPC ...

reacted with anger when former Guantanamo captive

Sabar Lal Melma Sabar Lal Melma (1962 – 3 September 2011) was a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. In April 2012,

Abdul Salam Zaeff Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef (; born 1967) is an Afghan diplomat who was the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan before the US invasion of Afghanistan. He was detained in Pakistan in the fall of 2001 and held until 2005 in the Guantanamo Bay detainment c ...

, another former Guantanamo captive, who had served as the Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, fled Afghanistan because he feared US raids. On 9 April 2012, ''

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

'' reported that Zaeef left Afghanistan for the United Arab Emirates. ''Al Jazeera'' wrote ''"Zaeef feared for his life in the wake of the attempted raids on his home. Many of the Taliban prisoners freed from Guantanamo had been killed in night raids and that made Zaeef more nervous."'' The Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged its role in submitting names of individual who would then be subject to night raids. The DEA is the lead agency in the

Afghan Threat Finance Cell The Afghan Threat Finance Cell was a multi-agency intelligence organization in Afghanistan. The organization was created in 2008. The United States' Drug Enforcement Administration was the lead agency in the organization. The co-deputy agencies ...

—an organization that tracked suspicious financial transactions. Afghan president Karzai largely banned night raids from 2013. His successor Ashraf Ghani lifted this ban from November 2014. The operations were later conducted by Afghan forces with occasional assistance from American advisers. Night Raids unofficially ended after the United States and its Allies left Afghanistan during the 2021 withdrawal.

References

{{reflist War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)