In February 2010, at the time of the surge in Helmand, a U.S. Special Forces detachment in Uruzgan called in airstrikes on three minibuses carrying unarmed civilians, killing some 21 people. General Stanley McCrystal went on Afghan television to apologize for the killing of civilians, promising "a thorough investigation to prevent this from happening again".
In October 2012, the Special Forces detachment was based in Wardak province. Sergeant Jeff Batson was shot in the leg by a sniper. After this, the detachment became harsher in methods, conducting roundup raids of the men of villages.
Kandahari says that after Batson was wounded and evacuated, the A-Team’s methods became much harsher. “After he left, it changed,” he says. “We weren’t arresting people according to reports anymore, just whether they looked suspicious. We would arrest a whole bunch of people and take them to the district center.”
The A-Team Killings, Matthieu Aikins, Rolling Stone
The bodies of some of the men taken in the raids would be discovered dumped near the Special Forces base the next spring. The dumped bodies were often mutilated.
"One of the prisoners was killed in front of my eyes. His name was Sayed Muhammed. He was beaten to death. Only one guy beat him, an American."
Left In the Dark: Failure of Accountability for Civilian Casualties Caused by International Military Operations in Afghanistan, Amnesty International
Afghan officials in Wardak and relatives told Reuters earlier that [Sayed] Mohammad's body was found near the Nerkh special forces base in May with both feet cut off. Mohammad first disappeared in November last year.
Afghan translator links U.S. forces to civilian killings, Hamid Shalizi, Reuters
In February 2013, after the dead bodies began to be discovered, Hamid Karzai sought to expel U.S. Special Forces from Wardak.
In June, under pressure, the United States Army opened an investigation.
It was only after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) presented fresh evidence to ISAF command in early June that it ordered the US military to start a criminal investigation.
Pressure on the US military to act has come from the media – with repeated investigative reports over many months by Reuters, here, here and here, the New York Times, here, here and here and the Wall Street Journal (see here) – and from the UN, the ICRC, the government of Afghanistan and local people.
The Nerkh Killings: The problem with ‘immunity’ for US soldiers, Kate Clark, Afghanistan Analysts Network
In November, the United Nations expressed concern at the lack of progress in the investigations.
Concern is expressed at the unlawful killing of at least 19 individuals in the district of Nerkh in the province of Wardak, Afghanistan in late 2012 and early 2013, as well as at the reported lack of progress in the investigations on these cases launched by the US and Afghan authorities.
Letter from UN Special Rapporteurs
The New York Times now reports that the United States has reopened an investigation into the killings of Afghan civilians at a U.S. Special Forces base in Wardak.
The United States military has reopened a criminal investigation into a series of at least 17 murders of civilians that Afghan officials blamed on an Army Special Forces team in 2012 and 2013, a senior Western official here said on Monday.
A spokesman for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command in Quantico, Va., Chris Grey, confirmed that a criminal investigation of the deaths was underway, although he did not say when the investigation had begun. The senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the investigation was reopened in recent weeks.
U.S. Army Reopens Criminal Inquiry Into Afghan Civilians’ Deaths, Rod Norland, New York Times
The story has received good media coverage. For anyone interested in the details, I'd cite:
Despite the media coverage, the story has, by my impression, hardly at all made it into public consciousness.
And against the ease of cynicism here, I'd agree that this two-years-later reopening of an investigation into the killings is an extremely important and welcome development.