A picture of an Afghan navy ID badge circulating broadly on-line Thursday that purportedly reveals the suspect within the capturing of the Nationwide Guard members says he was assigned to the “Kandahar Strike Drive” or “03” unit, one among a variety of so-called “Zero Items” that labored carefully with U.S. and different international forces in the course of the battle in Afghanistan.
The badge additionally carries the phrases “Firebase Gecko,” which was the title of a base utilized by the CIA and particular forces in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, inside what was beforehand the compound of the Taliban’s founding chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
CBS Information has not independently verified the authenticity of the ID badge proven within the images, however CIA Director John Ratcliffe stated the suspect had beforehand labored “with the U.S. Authorities, together with CIA, as a member of a accomplice pressure in Kandahar.”
The “Zero Items” had been completely composed of Afghan nationals and operated beneath the umbrella of the Nationwide Directorate of Safety, or NDS, the intelligence company established with CIA backing for Afghanistan’s earlier, U.S.-backed authorities.
A former senior Afghan normal beneath that earlier authorities instructed CBS Information on Thursday that “03 unit, also called The Kandahar Strike Drive (KSF), was beneath particular forces directorate of NDS. They had been essentially the most lively {and professional} forces, skilled and geared up by the CIA. All their operations had been performed beneath the CIA command.”
The models had been recognized in Afghanistan for his or her secrecy and alleged brutality, and members had been implicated in quite a few extrajudicial killings of civilians, notably throughout night time raids.
They had been thought of by the U.S. and its worldwide companions to be among the many most trusted home forces in Afghanistan.
There was no fast response from Afghanistan’s present Taliban authorities, and officers in Kabul didn’t reply to CBS Information’ requests for touch upon the arrest in Washington.
As a member of a Zero Unit, the suspect would have been just about assured a path to asylum within the U.S. as a result of members of those elite models had been excessive on the listing for Taliban retaliation after the group retook management of the nation. Many members of those models performed key roles within the August 2021 evacuation from Kabul, in return for a assure of area on a flight for themselves and their households out of Afghanistan.
