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Night raids in Afghanistan are a military tactic employed by United States and Afghani special forces during the War in Afghanistan. The coalition forces in Afghanistan maintain the Joint Prioritized Effects List (JPEL) of targets their special forces try to capture or kill. Using night vision equipment US special forces would burst into civilian households where targets on the Joint Prioritized Effects List were believed to be found. The operations are controversial, due to issues like civilian casualties.
Controversy
American generals have argued that these raids are a "critical" part of achieving success in the war. Afghani president Hamid Karzai has argued that they impinge upon Afghanistan's sovereignty and has called for them to be halted.
Human rights workers were concerned that the raids killed a large number of civilians bystanders, who weren't on the list. In addition they were concerned that individuals ended up on the list due to weak circumstantial evidence, or false denunciations triggered by greed, or long-standing tribal rivalries.
Afghan journalist Anand Gopal described a night raid intended to capture an official of the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture who had been denounced. He wasn't home, but during the course of the raid two of his cousins who also lived in his family compound were killed, and a third cousin was seized and disappeared into US custody.
Hamid Karzai's cousin Haji Yar Mohammad was killed during a night raid on his house in March 2011.
Officials on the Afghanistan High Peace Council reacted with anger when former Guantanamo captive Sabar Lal Melma who they thought had already been cleared of suspicion, was killed during a night raid. Saber Melma had been subjected to repeated raids and seizures. Officials on the Commission thought they had been assured by senior US officials that US Special Forces were going to stop harassing Melma. Yet he was shot during a further raid in September 2011.
In April 2012, the United States and Afghan governments signed an agreement which specifies that all future night raids will be approved by the Afghan government and led by Afghan units. It is expected that the raids will continue, and be dominated by US forces due to a shortage of Afghan special forces units; prior to the agreement Afghan forces were involved in 97 percent of all night raids, but only led approximately 40 percent of these operations.
In April 2012 Abdul Salam Zaeff, another former Guantanamo captive, who had served as the Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, fled Afghanistan because he feared US raids. On April 9, 2012, Al Jazeera reported that Zaeef left Afghanistan for the United Arab Emirates. Al Jazeera wrote "Zaeef feared for his life in the wake of the attempted raids on his home. Many of the Taliban prisoners freed from Guantanamo had been killed in night raids and that made Zaeef more nervous."
The Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged its role in submitting names of individual who would then be subject to night raids. The DEA is the lead agency in the Afghan Threat Finance Cell—an organization that tracked suspicious financial transactions.
Afghan president Karzai largely banned night raids from 2013. His successor Ashraf Ghani lifted this ban from November 2014. The operations will be conducted by Afghan forces with occasional assistance from American advisers.