US military hands over controversial prison

US officials have handed over formal control of Afghanistan’s only large-scale US-run prison to Kabul, even as a row between the two countries over thousands of Taliban and terror suspects held there marred the transfer.

The handover ceremony took place at the prison next to a sprawling US airfield in Bagram, just north of Kabul. President Hamid Karzai has called the transfer a victory for Afghan sovereignty.

The prison has been the focus of controversy in the past but never had the notoriety of the prisons at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

Earlier this year, the prison gained unwanted attention when hundreds of Qurans and other religious materials were taken from its library and burned.

The transfer is politically important for Karzai, a Pashtun who has been trying to assert his authority and counter accusations by Taliban insurgents that he is an American puppet.

The transfer is seen as a critical part of the US handover of responsibilities to the Afghans by the end of 2014. The US reportedly fears that Afghan authorities may let some detainees go, and appears reluctant to turn over every suspect it holds.

American irritation was apparent at the ceremony, where the US military was represented by the officer who runs the facility and no other high-ranking officers. The Afghan government sent its defence minister and the army chief of staff.