WITH the ongoing war in Afghanistan seemingly of little interest to much of the British media, journalist Joe Glenton’s new documentary is very welcome.

Having served in Kandahar with the British army in 2006 before going Awol and refusing to fight in the war, Glenton returns to Afghanistan to try to uncover the truth about shadowy death squads operating in the country.

Visiting Kabul and Jalalabad, he speaks to the family of victims, researchers, dissident and former MP Malalai Joya and government officials.

The 25-minute film highlights how raids supposedly targeting Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents, and often including extrajudicial executions, are carried out by the so-called Zero Units, paramilitary units operating in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Unsurprisingly, the raids often kill civilians. “For the local people they are just a bunch of killers that are going there and killing innocent people,” says Afghan researcher Rahmatullah Amiri.

And though they officially operate under the name of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “essentially controls it all,” Afghan journalist Ali M Latifi notes, “They fund it … they also hand out the operations.”

The CIA’s central role in these atrocities has been confirmed by reports in the New York Times, and by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Human Rights Watch.

Indeed, the spokesperson for Afghanistan’s National Security Council tacitly confirms this to Glenton, admitting the Afghan government only has “co-ordination with them [the Zero Units].”

More broadly, the film highlights how the war is still very much alive and kicking, with the US dropping, on average, 20 bombs a day on Afghanistan in 2019, a greater number than any year since 2006.

“It’s actually worse than 2001, 2002, 2006 or 2010,” Amiri says.

Worryingly for those who are in their sights, Glenton concludes that the Zero Units are operating with “no accountability to either the US or the Afghan governments.”

More broadly, this lack of accountability very much applies to the occupying powers too.

In Australia, the recent publication of the Brereton report, alleging Australian special forces murdered 39 Afghan civilians, has forced a reckoning about the country’s role in the conflict.

A similar self-critical, evidence-based national debate has yet to happen in Britain, though it is likely only a matter of time.

As one Australian special forces soldier told an earlier internal Australian military investigation into abuses in Afghanistan: “Whatever we do, though, I can tell you the Brits and the US are far, far worse.”

An August 2020 report by the Insight team at the Times newspaper suggests this may well be accurate: their investigation uncovered evidence that a so-called “rogue” British SAS unit had killed 33 people on 11 night raids on Afghan homes over the course of just three months in 2011.

Produced by Redfish, Kill or Capture: Inside the CIA’s Secret Afghan Army is available on YouTube.