US collaborated with Da'ish, claims Hamid Karzai

Former Afghan president says IS has been allowed to gain a foothold in the country with US approval

Former Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has accused the US of collaborating with the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan.

In an interview with a television channel, Karzai alleged that IS had been allowed to gain a foothold in the country with US approval.

"In my view under the full presence, surveillance, military, political, intelligence, Da'ish [IS] has emerged," he said, referring to the group with its Arabic name.

"And for two years the Afghan people came, cried loud about their suffering, of violations. Nothing was done," he alleged.



Referring to the decision by the Trump administration to drop 'the mother of all bombs' on Afghanistan on April 2017, he said that the very next day, Da'ish took the next district in Afghanistan.

WATCH: @mehdirhasan challenges former Afghan President Hamid Karzai on his suggestion that the US is working with ISIL. pic.twitter.com/BoIRrRI6Yd

— UpFront (@AJUpFront) November 10, 2017

"That proves to us that there is a hand in it and that hand can be no one else but them [the US] in Afghanistan," he stated.

The United States dropped the massive GBU-43 bomb (also known as the 'mother of all bombs') in eastern Afghanistan. It was the first time the US used this size of bomb in a conflict.

Karzai had criticised the bombing as "inhuman and most brutal misuse" of Afghanistan as "testing ground for new and dangerous weapons".

On war crimes

Karzai also approved of the recent decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor to investigate war crimes committed in Afghanistan."She's right to launch such an investigation," Karzai said, acknowledging that such crimes may have occurred on his watch."Definitely, there were violations by the Afghan security forces, by the US, and by others."



The former president was open to having his own complicity investigated, and stated that he would help the ICC investigation.

"I have been asking for this so that they come to Afghanistan and investigate as to what has happened in this country."

He also criticised Western organisations which he claimed were complicit in covering up US crimes.