Pentagon probes child abuse case in Afghanistan

The Pentagon has launched an investigation into allegations of a possible child abuse cover-up by US troops in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon's inspector general announced the probe in a memo on Tuesday, according to the AFP.

The probe follows a report by The New York Times in September that alleged US troops in Afghanistan were directed by their superiors to ignore cases of Afghan police or commanders sexually abusing young boys.

The soldiers were ordered to look on even if the criminal acts took place in military bases, according to the report.

"Is there -- or was there -- any guidance, informal or otherwise, to discourage reporting by DoD (Department of Defense) affiliated personnel?" asked the memo by the inspector general’s office.

"What training on identifying and responding to alleged child sexual abuse... has been conducted or planned?" the memo added.

The memo, which was sent to a wide range of commanders across the US military, also inquired information on the number of cases of child sex abuse, committed by Afghan government officials, that were reported to the US military or other coalition forces.

The Times based its report on accounts from multiple soldiers and the father of a marine who was killed in 2012.

"My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it's their culture," Gregory Buckley Sr., whose son was killed in Afghanistan, was quoted by the paper as saying.

The report also said that a former US Special Forces captain was stripped of his command after beating up an Afghan militia commander for chaining a teenage boy to his bed as a sex slave.

"Soldiers and Marines have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the American military was arming them in some cases and placing them as the commanders of villages - and doing little when they began abusing children," the report noted.

It added that the Pentagon’s non-intervention policy was a bid to maintain good relations with the Afghan militia and the country’s security forces.

In 2008, similar allegations were made by Canadian NATO soldiers upon return from Afghanistan. They said they were ordered by commanding officers "to ignore" incidents of sexual assault.

Gen John Campbell, the senior NATO commander in Afghanistan, has denied the reports.

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