Operation: Detain Afghans

Human Rights Watch looks askance at U.S. military activities in Afghanistan. From a Miami Herald report:

A human rights group on Sunday accused U.S. forces in Afghanistan of detaining at least 1,000 Afghans and other people over the past two years in a ''climate of almost total impunity'' that it contends violates international human rights law. A spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan disputed the findings.

In a 60-page report released today, the group, Human Rights Watch, also called on the U.S. military to release the results of investigations into the deaths of three Afghans in U.S. custody in 2002 and 2003. Initial military medical investigators declared two of the deaths homicides.

The report also said it had received ''numerous reports'' of U.S. forces relying on faulty intelligence or using ''excessive or indiscriminate force'' that resulted in avoidable civilian deaths and the detention of innocent people. It contended that the United States was employing interrogation techniques, like shackling prisoners, stripping them naked or depriving them of sleep, that the State Department had condemned as torture in Libya, North Korea and Iran.

Full report from Human Rights Watch available here.