US official: CIA runs Afghan counterterrorism team to hunt Taliban and al-Qaida targets
By Kimberly Dozier, APWednesday, September 22, 2010
CIA Afghan paramilitary force hunts militants
KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. official in Washington says the CIA is running an all-Afghan paramilitary group in Afghanistan that has been hunting Taliban and al-Qaida targets for the agency.
A security professional in Kabul familiar with the operation says the 3,000-strong force was set up in 2002 to capture targets for CIA interrogation. Both sources spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.
As first reported in a new book by Bob Woodward, “Obama’s Wars,” the paramilitary unit, called the Counterterrorist Protection Team, operates in violence-wracked provinces including Kandahar, Paktia and Paktika.
Woodward also reports the units conduct covert operations into Pakistan as part of a campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban havens there.
