THE HAGUE, November 14 (Aalimi Nation) – Judges at the International Criminal Court have formally closed the part of the Afghanistan investigation that covered alleged crimes by United States troops, a ruling that was issued on Thursday and made public on Friday. The prosecutor's office said it has appealed the decision.
ICC Afghanistan investigation: what the judges closed
The ruling ends two strands of the original inquiry. One was the examination of alleged offences by American forces, which had been dormant since 2021. The other was the probe into the Islamic State Khorasan Province group, known as ISKP. Only the investigation into the actions of the Taliban since August 2021 now remains open, the court's documents show.
The judges said the prosecution had not shown that it could effectively investigate the allegations outside the Taliban probe. They cited what they called "significant limitations to the Prosecution's ability to conduct its investigations and secure evidence."
The prosecutor's office said on Friday that it had already filed an appeal against the decision but gave no further details.
How the case reached this point
The Afghanistan investigation began in 2020 and covers alleged crimes dating back to 2002. It took in conduct attributed to Afghan government forces, the Taliban and American troops and intelligence operatives, making it one of the court's most politically sensitive cases. Earlier this year, judges directed prosecutors to divide the work into two separate probes: one on Taliban crimes since 2021 and one on the original inquiry, which had increasingly shifted towards ISKP.
In 2021, the then prosecutor, Karim Khan, said he would "deprioritise" the line of inquiry involving American forces, citing the difficulty of gathering evidence. Mr Khan was removed from the court earlier in 2026 over allegations of sexual misconduct.
Arrest warrants issued last year for four Taliban leaders remain in effect, and the continuing investigation into the Taliban is unaffected by Thursday's ruling.
The United States and the court
The decision arrives at a time of open friction between Washington and the court. The United States is not a member of the ICC and does not recognise its jurisdiction, but the court's founding statute allows it to prosecute anyone accused of atrocity crimes committed on the territory of its member states. Afghanistan is a member state.
Washington has imposed sanctions on 13 current and former ICC staff members, citing the inquiry into American personnel and the arrest warrants issued against Israeli officials. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that "President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans."
It is unclear whether the ruling will soften the American position. The closure of the strand relating to US troops does not alter the court's founding statute,.
What happens next
The outcome now depends on the appeal. If the prosecutor's challenge succeeds, the closed strands could be reopened; if it fails, the Afghanistan case will be confined to the Taliban investigation. The court has not announced a timetable for the appeal,.
