WASHINGTON — The US military will maintain control over a cluster of foreign detainees and new ones captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan, even as the two countries prepare to ceremonially turn over detention operations to Afghan control at President Hamid Karzai's demand, Afghan and US officials said.
The persistence of US-run holding cells in Afghanistan, in a section of the main Parwan prison complex, underscores the complexity of relinquishing control over detainee operations while US troops are still in the field conducting raids and making arrests — including the risk that detainees could be freed only to come back and stage attacks.
Some of the difficulties, moreover, echo problems that have slowed the Obama administration's efforts to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It is illegal to repatriate prisoners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or killed, for example, and US officials have also wanted to ensure that other governments are willing and able to keep tabs on any former detainees who are released.
Afghan guards now operate most of the cellblocks at Parwan, built by the Americans at Bagram Air Base north of the capital, and they have taken custody of most of the roughly 3,000 Afghans held as suspects in the insurgency when the allies signed a transfer agreement March 9. The deal, which set a six-month handover schedule, was a charged symbol of Afghan sovereignty at a time of serious tensions over US troops' burning of Korans near the detention facility.
But even as Karzai has disclosed plans for a ceremony Monday to mark the ''full transfer'' of the detention center, officials of both countries say the United States will remain in control of a portion of the Parwan complex where about 50 detainees from other countries, mostly Pakistanis, are being held.
Moreover, the United States continues to operate cellblocks to hold and screen Afghan detainees who were captured more recently. Since March 9, more than 600 additional Afghans have been taken into custody, and most remain in US custody even as continuing sweeps and raids add to their numbers. A major unresolved issue is how quickly newly arrested Afghans should be turned over.
William Lietzau, the assistant secretary of defense for detainee policy, said in an interview that the United States was ''on a trajectory to be able to comply'' with the ''milestone'' — he rejected the word deadline — on Sunday. Compliance, he said, meant having transferred all Afghan citizens who were already in custody when the agreement was signed.