US handover last Afghan detention facility to Kabul

THE US military has passed control of its last detention facility in Afghanistan to Kabul, a year after the two sides initially agreed on the transfer.

The handover of Parwan Detention Facility yesterday ends a bitter chapter in US relations with Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, who demanded control of the prison as a matter of national sovereignty.

The top US commander in Afghanistan, General Joseph Dunford, formally handed over Parwan, near the US-run Bagram military base, at a ceremony with Afghan defence minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi.

Gen Dunford said: “The transfer of the detention facility is an important part of the overall transition of security lead to Afghan National Security Forces. This ceremony highlights an increasingly confident, capable, and sovereign Afghanistan.”