US, Afghans poised to agree deal on night raids

The United States and Afghanistan are close to clinching an agreement that will give Kabul more authority over night time raids, resolving an issue that threatened to derail negotiations on a long-term US military presence, US officials said Tuesday. "An agreement is days away," a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. The deal could be announced as soon as this week, paving the way for a strategic partnership agreement governing the future of US forces beyond 2014, when the bulk of American and NATO troops are due to withdraw, US officials said. Night raids by special forces against insurgent hideouts have triggered popular anger and long been a source of friction with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has denounced the NATO operations as reckless. The deal taking shape would put Afghans in the lead for night raids and call for Afghan judges to issue warrants for the operations, officials said. Negotiators from both governments were working out a final sticking point over how long US forces would be allowed to detain suspects picked up in the raids, a US official said. The Afghans wanted suspects promptly transferred to their control while the Americans wanted to hold on to the detainees for a period of days to interrogate them and gather intelligence, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The memorandum of understanding on night raids would allow Karzai to demonstrate he was bolstering Afghan sovereignty without halting the operations, the official said. It was also possible that the warrants from Afghan judges could be issued after a night raid was conducted, the official said. A Pentagon spokesman expressed optimism Tuesday that a deal was near. "We believe we're making progress in heading toward an agreement on this and a broad range of other issues," Pentagon press secretary George Little told a news conference on Tuesday. The issue of night raids "has been a concern of the Afghan government for some time. We recognize that. We recognize the effectiveness as well that night operations have had over time," he said. "And that's why we're working through an agreement with our Afghan partners." Despite Karzai's criticism that the raids amount to harassment of local communities, NATO has defended the operations as the safest way of targeting insurgent leaders.