The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague decided to continue the investigation of the alleged war crimes of the United States and other countries in Afghanistan.
The court quashed the decision of the pre-trial chamber of April 2019, which suspended the investigation.
In the US, the investigation has already led to sanctions against prosecutors – they were deprived of visas.
The investigation covers the actions of US troops, the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban (banned in Russia) from May 1, 2003. The United States is not a party to the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction over American citizens. However, Afghanistan is a state party to the court.
In October 2019, Human Rights Watch released a report that equated the actions of Afghan government forces with the support of the CIA to war crimes. Human rights activists came to the conclusion that government forces carried out executions, kidnapped people and attacked hospitals.
Kabul and Washington challenged the findings of the report. The CIA called undercover operations conducted in Afghanistan, consistent with international law.
In December 2018, the New York Times published an investigation into the actions of Afghan forces with the support of the CIA. According to the publications, they did not follow the rules for protecting civilians and could commit war crimes.
The UN report of April 2019 contains similar conclusions.
In November 2019, an investigation was launched by the BBC Panorama program and the Sunday Times, in which the British government and armed forces were accused of concealing war crimes committed by the British military in Afghanistan and Iraq.