THE HAGUE, Nov 13 - Judges at the International Criminal Court have issued a decision to formally close part of the prosecutor's investigations into Afghanistan that previously looked at alleged crimes by US troops and to focus only on actions of the Taliban since 2021, court documents show.
The decision by the chamber formally closes not only the line of inquiry into alleged crimes by US troops, which had already lain dormant since 2021, but also a probe into the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) militia. The office of the prosecutor told Reuters on Friday it had appealed the decision but could not give further details.
It is the latest step in a legal tussle between prosecutors and judges about the Afghanistan case, and comes after the United States issued institutional sanctions against the court, citing US opposition to arrest warrants issued for Israeli officials and the investigation into actions of US soldiers in Afghanistan.
This year, judges ordered prosecutors to split their Afghanistan inquiries into two separate probes — one focusing on the alleged crimes committed by the Taliban since 2021, and the other on the original Afghanistan inquiry, which also looked at alleged war crimes by US troops but has shifted towards looking at the ISIS-K militia.
