Afghan president to free scores of Taliban fighters: Karzai condemned over betrayal of British war dead



U.S. only recently transferred the prison at Bagram to Afghan control

Had become serious source of tension with the government in Afghanistan



30 per cent had participated in direct attacks that killed or wounded 60 U.S. and coalition troops



Britain has condemned the release of Taliban prisoners accused of killing and maiming Western forces in Afghanistan.

To the fury of the UK, the US and victims' families, president Hamid Karzai has freed 88 dangerous militants from a jail at Bagram, the former US air base run by the Afghan government.

The US wants them to be prosecuted and says 30 per cent carried out direct attacks that killed or wounded 60 coalition troops, and 40 per cent killed 57 Afghans, including police and security forces.

Transfer: The prison compound before a ceremony handing over the Bagram prison to Afghan authorities, at the U.S. airbase in Bagram, north of Kabul September 10, 2012

US soldiers stand guard beside prison cells during a media tour of Bagram prison, north of Kabul in 2009

Last night the Foreign Office expressed serious concerns about the mass release, which the US says poses a major security threat, and the likelihood that the fighters could re-join the insurgency.

Tony Lewis, whose son Conrad was killed in Afghanistan in February 2011, said Mr Karzai showed scant concern for the lives of troops who served there.

Private Lewis, from Bournemouth, was killed by gunfire in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province. The 22-year-old was four months into his tour with 4th Battalion the Parachute Regiment.

Mr Lewis said: 'We are still dealing with the impact of losing our son and we valued his life above all else. If people like Karzai are prepared to negotiate with these people, he clearly puts a low value on the lives of those who tried to help his country and his people.

'Clearly, he has little regard for the sacrifices they have made.

'He needs to explain why he is doing this and if he cannot justify it to the US and UK, he certainly cannot justify it to any parent who has lost their child there, or to his own people who have suffered at the hands of the Taliban.'

Relations with Afghanistan have grown particularly strained over President Hamid Karzai's refusal to sign a bilateral security deal

The US is trying to block the release of the prisoners, which critics say is a concession to the Taliban in the run-up to the country's first presidential elections in April.

Colonel Dave Lapan, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, said yesterday that the Afghan Review Board, which proposed the release, had 'exceeded its mandate'. He said it had 'ordered the release of a number of dangerous individuals who are legitimate threats and for whom there is strong evidence supporting prosecution or further investigation'.

But the head of the board, Abdul Shakor Dadras, denied that the 88 jailed insurgents posed a threat.

He said: 'In many cases, detainees were wrongly linked to certain incidents they were not involved in.'

Mr Dadras has been reviewing the cases of 760 prisoners. In total, 650 are being freed.

A Foreign Office spokesman said last night: 'We share the US's serious concerns about the release of any prisoners involved in attacks in Afghanistan, and the concerns that they could go on to engage in the insurgency there.'

Bagram prison, which holds 3,000 inmates 25 miles north of the capital Kabul, is where many of the most notorious Taliban killers are held.

The United States only recently transferred the prison at Bagram to Afghan control after it had become a serious source of tension with the government in Afghanistan which is fighting a Taliban-led insurgency

About 30 percent had participated in direct attacks that killed or wounded 60 U.S. and coalition troops, a U.S. official said

The US had resisted handing it over because it feared dangerous inmates would be released.

The row will fuel concerns about the legacy that Britain will leave following the 13-year conflict in Afghanistan – less than a month after David Cameron declared that British troops would accomplish their mission by the time their withdrawal is completed at the end of this year.

Ex-colonel and former Tory defence spokesman Patrick Mercer said: 'This is the unacceptable face of realpolitik. The allies' precipitous departure from Afghanistan is simply to mean those who have been killing our men are going to be free in the future. It's disgusting, but we are going to have to get used to it.

'Karzai has little choice but to negotiate with his former enemies. We have left him without support.'

* Bombings and shootings in Iraq killed 7,818 civilians in 2013, the UN said yesterday.

The killings have sparked fears that the country may return to the levels of slaughter seen between 2004 and 2007, when tens of thousands died each year.