With "Afraid of the Dark in Afghanistan," Anand Gopal published a detailed analysis that covered the use of night raids by "counterinsurgency" forces:
It has become a predictable pattern: Taliban forces ambush American convoys as they pass through the village, and then retreat into the thick fruit orchards that cover the area. The Americans then return at night to pick up suspects. In the last two years, 16 people have been taken and 10 killed in night raids in this single village of about 300, according to villagers. In the same period, they say, the insurgents killed one local and did not take anyone hostage.
The people of this village therefore have begun to fear the night raids more than the Taliban. There are now nights when Rehmatullah's children hear the distant thrum of a helicopter and rush into his room. He consoles them, but admits he needs solace himself. "I know I should be too old for it," he says, "but this war has made me afraid of the dark."
The night raids were further detailed during a segment on Democracy Now!.The segment featured Gopal explaining that night raids are "seen as a major affront to local culture, to the extent where people are actually scared in many places to actually go to sleep at night, because they don't know who will burst through the door at night and take away their loved ones."
Raids have come under increased scrutiny from human rights organizations in the past few years. Not long ago, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission published a 55-page report on the tactic.
The Commission said the tactic was a "combination of abusive behaviour and violent breaking and entry into civilians' homes in the middle of the night [that] stokes almost as much anger and resentment toward PGF [pro-government forces] as the more lethal air strikes."
An article by The Globe and Mail (Canada), which also featured coverage of the AIHRC report, covered Canadian commander Brigadier-General Denis Thompson's defense of the night raids.
In response to scrutiny from human rights organizations, he argued that "philosophically" he and his forces were opposed to such raids, that there was "nothing worse than busting into somebody's house in the middle of the night." But, he added, "in the cases where we actually go into a compound, it's either in self-defence or it's as a result of a long string of intelligence-gathering that has led us to a certain compound and, invariably, when it comes time to execute the raid, there are no innocent civilians there, there are just bad guys."
Afghanistan Rick Reyes would probably disagree. Reyes appeared on Uprising Radio in May of 2009 to discuss Obama's push for more troops. In his appearance, he mentioned the use of night raids as he argued the occupation wasn't going well and at best the U.S. should rethink the strategy in Afghanistan:
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