Unveiling the results of a lengthy initial probe into atrocities committed in Afghanistan, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the Taliban militia, Afghan government forces and US troops as well as the CIA all appeared to have carried out war crimes. But for the first time she highlighted allegations of "war crimes of torture and related ill-treatment, by US military forces deployed to Afghanistan and in secret detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency." Detailing her office's initial findings, Bensouda said "at least 61 detainees" were subjected to "torture (and) cruel treatment" by US armed forces in Afghanistan between May 1, 2003 and December 31, 2014. The war crimes allegedly carried out by US forces were "not the abuses of a few isolated individuals," she added in the report. The ICC was set up in The Hague in 2002 to try the world's worst crimes in which national courts are unwilling or unable to act.

Source: The Nation Bangkok November 15, 2016 00:14 UTC