Men in uniforms rob Afghan civilians

Local residents in the Sangeen district of the restive southern Afghan province of Helmand said armed Afghan men in military uniforms looted their homes and businesses in early April. There are conflicting reports on whether the men were allied with international forces fighting the Taliban or whether they were an independent militia. "They were Afghans wearing military uniforms like the national police and army. They broke into many houses and shops and looted whatever they could," a local resident said in an interview in Sangeen. Provincial authorities and police officials in the capital, Kabul, confirmed reports of plundering by militias working for US forces in Afghanistan. "They work for the Americans," Nabi Jan Molakhel, Helmand's police chief, said in an interview. "We impounded 35 motorcycles and many others items that they had stolen in Sangeen. We tried to apprehend them, but the Americans stopped us saying whatever they had taken belonged to the Taliban." In Kabul, Zemarai Bashari, spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior, said that no Afghan police or soldiers were involved in the lootings in Sangeen. "Armed men who work for the US forces were [not] involved in those nasty actions. We don't have a single ANP [Afghan National Police] officer in the Sangeen district for the time being," said Bashari, adding that a 100-man police force would be deployed in the district to ensure law and order in the near future. NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) and NATO officials denied any knowledge of such militias. A spokesman for ISAF said its forces work very closely with the Afghan police and army but do not maintain relations with illegal armed groups and other militias in the country. Nicholas Lunt, NATO's spokesman in Afghanistan, said no Afghan militias are used in their operations but "I cannot comment on whether US forces use non-government Afghan forces in their operations that do not come under NATO command."