Original source:
US President Barack Obama has ordered an investigation into reports that warlords allied to the US slaughtered up to 2,000 Afghan prisoners of war in 2001.
In a televised interview aired on Sunday, Mr Obama said: ‘I think that, you know, there are responsibilities that all nations have even in war.
‘If it appears that our conduct in some way supported violations of the laws of war, then I think that we have to know about that,’ he said, adding: ‘We’ll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all the facts.’
The president’s comments appear to reverse previous statements from top officials who said that they had no grounds to investigate the deaths.
The US-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) hailed the US president for acknowledging ‘that US and Afghan violations of the laws of war must be investigated.’
PHR researcher Nathaniel Raymond said: ‘If the Obama administration finds that criminal wrongdoing occurred in this case, those responsible – whether US or Afghan officials – must be prosecuted.’
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