Afghan leader calls in U.S. commander after Afghan complaints

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. troops in Afghanistan will try to kick down fewer doors and cuff fewer bewildered villagers when they are searching for insurgents, the American military said Monday, in an attempt to polish the image of a force tarnished also by allegations of prisoner abuse.

Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top U.S. commander, agreed to a 15-point plan to improve relations with Afghan civilians and officials after President Hamid Karzai called him in for talks, a military spokesman said.

The changes will improve cooperation in defeating insurgents and "maintaining goodwill between the people of Afghanistan and coalition forces," spokesman Maj. Scott Nelson said. "The coalition recognizes that its forces are guests in Afghanistan."

Local leaders have repeatedly complained of heavy-handed tactics by the U.S.-dominated coalition, especially during searches that sometimes involve air power and take place in the dead of night.

Rights groups warn that the muscular approach may have caused unnecessary deaths and stoked sympathy for Taliban rebels who continue to defy the currently 18,000-strong force under Barno's command.

The military says its critics forget that, more than two years after the hardline Islamic regime's ouster, Afghanistan remains a war zone.

Signaling a softer policy after a meeting on Wednesday with Karzai in his presidential palace, Barno also said his commanders would consult more with local officials and tribal elders before starting sweeps.

Troops would also return seized materials, receive training in "local customs and courtesies" and get elders to ask residents to open their doors before soldiers force their way in, Nelson said.

Commanders also agreed a raft of measures relating to prisoners - a particularly sensitive issue since the scandal over abuse of detainees in Iraq drew renewed attention to long-standing complaints in Afghanistan.

The military will fund reconstruction projects in areas where people were detained and subsequently released; Afghans will be told to go to the international Red Cross for information on prisoners; and a new Afghan-U.S. body will "resolve detainee issues," Nelson said.

The U.S. military is investigating several allegations that prisoners were abused in its jails in Afghanistan, including at least four deaths.

Barno is expected to present the delayed results of a review of the about 20 holding facilities for prisoners later this month.

A separate international contingent of 6,500 troops, who are mostly in the capital, is expected to grow and gradually replace U.S.-led troops across Afghanistan. On Monday, a five-nation European defense force relieved Canada from its turn at the head of the troops, who are drawn from NATO members and beyond.

At a ceremony in the Afghan capital, Eurocorps commander Lt. Gen. Jean-Louis Py of France took control of the alliance's international force for a six-month period to include Afghanistan's first post-Taliban election.

The European force is made up of troops Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg. Italian and Spanish soldiers are expected to swell the NATO force to as much as 10,000 around the Oct. 9 election to try to prevent more attacks by militants who have vowed to disrupt the process. Twelve election workers and guards have already died.

The American-led force, focused on the south and east, as well as thousands of newly trained Afghan national police and army soldiers will also help provide security for the election.

An Afghan governor said Monday that Afghan forces acting on a tip captured four regional Taliban commanders and killed six other militants in two separate weekend raids in the south.

The Taliban commanders were captured Saturday during a raid on a home in Tarinkot, the capital of Afghanistan's Oruzgan province, said Jan Mohammed, the governor of the province. They offered no resistance.

Mohammed identified the men as Mullah Yaqub, Mullah Wali Mohammed, Mullah Taj Mohammed and Mullah Nasiem, all regional commanders of the militia. None are believed to be in the senior inner circle close to Mullah Mohammed Omar, who has been on the run since his government was ousted in late 2001.