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March 10, 2012

U.S., Afghans Set Six-Month Hand-Over of Prison

By CHARLES LEVINSON

KABUL--The U.S. and Afghanistan agreed to transfer the main U.S.-run detention facility in the country to Afghan control over the next six months, a breakthrough in talks over a long-term strategic partnership.

The commander of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, and Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak signed the agreement, which sets up the gradual transfer of 3,000 Afghan detainees currently held by the U.S. at the Bagram Airfield north of Kabul.

Friday's accord removes one of two main sticking points that have been holding up a strategic partnership agreement on continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan after the 2014 deadline for transferring security responsibilities to Afghan forces.

U.S. officials hope to be able to conclude the strategic partnership deal before the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Chicago in May. The two countries plan to sign a more detailed bilateral security accord within 12 months of that agreement, U.S. officials say.

U.S. and Afghan negotiators will now turn their attention to finding agreement over the issue of night raids by U.S. Special Operations Forces. Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants the raids stopped because they are seen as an invasion of Afghan homes. U.S. military officials say the raids are necessary to keep up pressure on the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

U.S. officials say they are working to have most night raids led by Afghan troops, but that so far there aren't enough qualified Afghan personnel. Bargaining over the issue has just begun, U.S. officials say.

The memorandum of understanding on the Bagram prison was signed a day after President Barack Obama and Mr. Karzai discussed the security pact via videoconference. The ceremony in Kabul concluded months of negotiations over the fate of the facility, where last month U.S. soldiers burned Qurans, provoking days of deadly riots across the country.

A first group of 500 detainees at Bagram is expected to be turned over to Afghan custody within 45 days, senior U.S. officials involved in the negotiations said. About 50 non-Afghan detainees at the prison will remain in U.S. custody, the officials said.

After the six-month hand-over period ends, U.S. advisers will remain at the Bagram detention facility for at least another year in an advisory and supporting role, and to ensure that the treatment of detainees doesn't violate international standards, the officials said. A U.N. report last fall alleged systematic torture and human-rights abuses of detainees in dozens of Afghan detention centers across the country.

The Afghans will oversee the transferred prisoners in one of 20 new facilities the U.S. is helping to build, because the current facility at Bagram, modeled on American prison systems, is too complicated to operate and sustain for Afghan guards. U.S.-trained Afghan military police units will make up the bulk of the personnel at the new facilities, the officials said.

The U.S. sought to ensure it would have a chance to interrogate detainees, as well as guarantee that prisoners weren't abused, officials said. "We are confident this memorandum of understanding gives us the access we need to monitor the humane treatment conditions in the new Afghan facilities," said one of the U.S. officials.

Even after all prisoners are handed over to Afghan control, releasing any of them would ultimately require approval from both Gen. Allen and Gen. Wardak, the officials said.

The so-called "dual key mechanism for release" means U.S. commanders will retain an effective right of veto should the Afghans decide they want to release a prisoner the U.S. considers a threat. American concerns that Mr. Karzai would free some senior insurgent leaders had held up the U.S. agreement to transfer the Bagram facility to Afghan control.

Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com