WASHINGTON?American forces in Afghanistan are releasing 43 prisoners, most of them mistakenly thought to be al Qaeda or Taliban fighters, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Twelve prisoners were released after being held for two weeks on suspicion they were Iranians trying to destabilize the interim Afghan government. The other 31 had been captured Sunday at what U.S. forces thought was a Taliban or al Qaeda military compound.
The 12 had been turned over to U.S. custody after being detained March 5 in the western province of Farah on suspicion of trying to buy influence for Iran among local groups, local Afghan authorities said at the time.
They turned out to be ethnic Afghans, Brig. Gen. John W. Rosa Jr., deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.
Afghan and U.S. officials have been complaining that Iranian agents distributing money, weapons and other supplies among armed groups in western Afghanistan are trying to destabilize Afghanistan’s interim central government by fomenting regional dissent.
The other 31 released were taken in the latest raid on a suspected Afghan terrorist compound Sunday 40 miles west of Kandahar.
Though the decision had been made to release them, American forces were still working Wednesday on transportation and other logistics for their release.
All the prisoners were being released into the custody of local Afghan authorities.
Rosa told a Pentagon press conference Wednesday that American forces had previously watched the site, then more recently saw a buildup there in weapons and suspicious activity.
“Through intelligence we saw more ammunition, more weapons in that area. We also saw folks that we didn’t necessarily recognize” and that Afghan allies didn’t recognize, he said.
The development highlights difficulties the U.S.-led coalition faces to figure out who’s who in a nation where lawlessness is rampant and one-time supporters switched sides after the harsh Taliban governing system fell. It also highlights the difficulty in collecting good intelligence as coalition forces seek out scattered and hiding enemy fighters.
Additionally, it is an example of operations rarely talked about openly by the Pentagon. Sunday’s raid was made public, but an unknown number of others with similar outcomes have remained secret, defense officials said.
The capture came as coalition forces were winding down Operation Anaconda, a 2,000-troop assault to kill or capture al Qaeda and Taliban fighters believed to be regrouping in eastern Afghanistan.
Before Anaconda, the last known ground operation was on Jan. 23, when U.S. special forces raided a compound where the United States mistakenly believed enemy figures were hiding. The Pentagon has said 16 people who turned out not to be to al Qaeda or Taliban were killed when they resisted and another 27 captured were released to Afghan authorities.
Smaller, undisclosed raids took place before and after the Jan. 23 raid, officials have said privately. Those raids concentrated on gathering information about pockets of resistance and netting documents or individuals who were previously released.
On Sunday, a team of Army Special Forces soldiers attacked a convoy that American intelligence had been watching, three vehicles traveling about 45 miles southwest of the city of Gardez. Sixteen people in the convoy were killed, and the military said they were believed to be al Qaeda fighters. One man was detained, officials said.
Although Anaconda was the largest U.S. ground operation in the war, it is not expected to be the last.