U.N. official says foreign agents involved in secret raids that have killed Afghan civilians

United Nations human rights envoy Philip Alston claimed Thursday that foreign intelligence agents have been responsible for some Afghan civilian deaths, The Associated Press reported the same day.

“It is absolutely unacceptable for heavily armed internationals accompanied by heavily armed Afghan forces to be wandering around conducting dangerous raids that too often result in killings without anyone taking responsibility for them,” Alston told reporters.

Alston, a special rapporteur of the U.N. Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, recently returned from 12 days in Afghanistan. He said that over 500 civilians have died this year at the hands of various assailants including Taliban militants, Afghan and foreign security forces and Afghan militiamen.

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