Kabul Confirms Interpreter Arrested Over Torture Claims Afghan officials have confirmed that they had arrested and were questioning Zakaria Kandahari, whom they have described as an Afghan-American interpreter responsible for torturing and killing civilians while working for a US Special Forces unit. The arrest of Kandahari, who was sought on charges of murder, torture and abuse of prisoners, was confirmed on Sunday by Major General Manan Farahi, the head of intelligence for the Afghan Defense Ministry. He said Kandahari, who escaped from an American base in January after President Hamid Karzai demanded his arrest, was captured in Kandahar by the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service. There had been speculation for the last three weeks that Kandahari was in custody. Afghan officials had accused the U.S. military of deliberately allowing Kandahari to escape, a claim that U.S. officials rejected. U.S. officials said that Kandahari was no longer working for them at the time and that he was not a U.S. citizen. Since his arrest, Kandahari has not been in contact with the U.S. Embassy, a U.S. official said. Some human rights advocates believe Kandahari is being held in the National Directorate of Security's Unit 124, which they have decried as a prison where torture is routine. CIA transfers Unit 124, across the street from the U.S. and NATO military headquarters in Kabul, is one of the Afghan detention sites on a proscribed list by the U.S. military, which is not allowed to transfer prisoners to facilities where torture is believed to be used. However, that ban does not apply to the Central Intelligence Agency, which often has personnel in Unit 124, activists say. Kandahari is wanted in connection with the disappearances and deaths of many of 17 Afghan civilians who were detained by an American Special Forces A Team for which he worked. Afghan investigators said they uncovered a videotape showing Kandahari torturing one civilian, Sayid Mohammad, who was later found dead, and said there was substantial evidence to prove that U.S. personnel were involved in the detentions of the missing civilians. Bodies found The bodies of 10 victims were found near the Special Forces base beginning in April, after the Americans left; the last was discovered on June 4, according to Afghan forensic investigators and family members of the victims. They had disappeared between November 2012 and February 2013. The U.S. military did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday, but in May, a U.S. official insisted that the A Team was not to blame for the disappearances and deaths. "We have done three investigations down there, and all absolve ISAF forces and Special Forces of all wrongdoing," the official said, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. It is simply not true. A representative for Human Rights Watch in Afghanistan, Heather Barr, said: "The U.S. said they investigated thoroughly, there's nothing there, so everyone should go away and accept their word that they checked and did nothing wrong? I don't think that ends the discussion. There's a lot more explaining that needs to be done that hasn't happened yet. Afghan investigators said Kandahari appeared to play a leadership role, and not just that of an interpreter, in deciding whom to detain for questioning. U.S. personnel were seen at all of the arrests, according to Afghan officials, and the victims were last seen being taken onto their small base in the Nerkh district of Wardak province. Unclear role Afghan officials have been unable to determine the composition of the American base while it was operating, and they believe that a CIA team working with the Special Forces unit there may have been responsible for Kandahari. Kandahari had been transferred to Nerkh from Camp Gecko in Kandahar, which is a CIA substation. He was ostensibly part of a team of Afghans working for a mine-clearing aid group, which was a cover for paramilitary activity. Farahi said investigators had determined that of the last 10 people who disappeared in Wardak, only in two of their cases was there any evidence of possible links with insurgents. In addition, he said, the abuse of detainees continued even after Kandahari fled when Karzai demanded that he be handed over to the Afghan authorities. Four of those who were killed had been arrested after Kandahari fled, the authorities said. "Everybody knows and you should know that Zakaria Kandahari and these people with him were there with the Americans and were working for the Americans," Farahi said. Whether they killed people on their own or were directed by the Americans to kill people, it needs extensive investigation. Now that Mr. Kandahari is in custody most of these things will become clear. Karzai initially ordered all U.S. Special Forces teams out of Wardak province over the Nerkh accusations, but he later agreed to a compromise in which only the team in Nerkh would be replaced by an Afghan Special Forces unit, which took place in March.