As part of the proposed Bilateral Security Agreement between the United States and Afghanistan, President Barack Obama in a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai said U.S. forces will not enter Afghan homes “except under extraordinary circumstances involving urgent risk of life and limb,” reports The Washington Times.
Karzai and Secretary of State John Kerry announced the proposed security agreement Nov. 21. Karzai wants to delay signing the document, putting the burden on his successor following April’s presidential election, but Afghan’s tribal elders approved the pact and want it signed by 2014, reports UPI.
Current rules of engagement require U.S. troops to confirm that a Taliban fighter is armed before they can fire, which has resulted in some aerial gunships being denied permission to fire even after reporting armed targets on the move.
Ryan Zinke, a veteran who had commanded an assault team within SEAL Team 6, told The Washington Times that the security deal will be “effectively used against us.”
“The first people who are going to look at it and review it are the enemy we’re trying to fight,” said Zinke, now a Montana state senator and a candidate in the Republican primary for the state’s lone U.S. House seat.