Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calls the ICC's decision to approve the Afghan war crime probe 'a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution, masquerading as a legal body.'
The United States has attacked a decision by an international judiciary to allow U.S. troops and other parties to the 18-year conflict in Afghanistan to be investigated for war crimes.
"It is all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan—the best chance for peace in a generation," Pompeo said Thursday, noting that Kabul—which, unlike Washington, was a member of the ICC's founding Rome Statute—also wanted the case thrown out.
U.S. special operations service members conduct combat operations in support of Operation Resolute Support in southeast Afghanistan, May 2019. More than 2,400 U.S. troops have been killed along with tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers, insurgents and civilians since the U.S.-led intervention in 2001.
The agreement provides that Afghanistan will not host militant organizations like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group that seek to attack the U.S. and that the Taliban and Afghan government will hold a direct dialogue of their own. In exchange, the U.S. and other foreign forces will withdraw from the country.
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