The Night Doctrine: The Truth About Afghanistan’s Zero Unit Night Raids

0:04 [Crickets chirp and wind blows] [Owl hoots] Lynzy Billing: A raid is one of the most offensive and intrusive ways to place yourself in someone’s life. [Wind blows] To come to people's homes at night, when they are most vulnerable, in such a scary way. [Buzz of a helicopter] [Far-off gunshots] [Shouts. Crash of a door breaking down.] [Gunshot] [Far-off shouts] [Gasp] And when that happens to someone who isn’t the right target, they’re left with that trauma, night after night and years after.

0:50 [Dark piano music] It is a psychological strategy. The U.S. knew that when they used it here in Afghanistan. For years, I’ve gone on a quest to count the deaths from these night raids. [Helicopter buzz. Wind.] This story is personal to me. My name is Lynzy. [Footsteps] [Baby's laugh] When I was 2 years old, a night raid in Nangarhar province killed my sister

1:36 and mother during the civil war. My father was killed later in fighting. [Footsteps] [Frightening growl] I was adopted by a British family living in Pakistan. When I was 12 years old, I moved with them to Israel. [Paper rustles] When I was in my early 20s, I started looking into my biological family. I didn’t know anything about them. I actually tried to hire investigators to help me look into it.

2:26 They were totally uninterested to help. [Low music] By that time, I had become a reporter in the U.K. [Airplane overhead] So I decided to go back to my homeland and investigate my past myself. But what I found in Afghanistan was bigger than anything I had imagined. A bridge that would tie past, present and future. [Far-away shouts of a crowd] News clips: Hours ago, the last American troops left Afghanistan.

3:12 The U.S.’s longest war is over. Twenty years since it began on October 2001. [Crash] Lynzy: In 2001, everything changed. [Afghan string music] Days after Sept. 11, the first CIA officers touched down in Afghanistan targeting the Taliban and al-Qaida. [Buzz overhead] Over the past two decades, that strategy largely consisted of drone strikes, airstrikes and night raids. [Low music] Lynzy: I was in Nangarhar, looking into my personal story,

4:03 when I met a widow named Mahzala. She told me the story of how masked soldiers came to her home in the middle of the night, and shot and killed her only two sons. I knew what it felt like to live without knowing why your family had been killed. [Splash] That it is not possible to move on from the grief without answers. [Pulsing music] I felt this huge responsibility to look into what had happened to Mahzala and others.

4:48 I learned that the raid on her home was conducted by elite squadrons of Afghan special forces backed by the United States. They were known as the Zero Units. [Gunshots and sound of a bullet] [A man screams] Lynzy: Over the last four years of the war, these units killed hundreds of civilians. [Vehicle sounds] They were overseen by the CIA, and their targets were selected using American intelligence. I spent more than three years investigating hundreds of night raid operations.

5:39 [Tense music] I also spent six months trying to find soldiers from inside the unit to talk to. [Chug of a bus] I really wanted to find out how they felt when civilians were killed in these operations. [Moody music] [Men speaking quietly] I met two Afghan soldiers who I’ll call Baseer and Hadi for their safety. They fought in this unit for years. [Helicopter blades cut through the air] [Music builds]

6:27 [Blowing wind] Baseer: My name is Mr. B. I am a soldier in Afghanistan's Zero Unit in the east of the country. [Flick of a lighter] [Cigarette crinkles] I was born into a poor family. My mother was sick. We needed the money [for her treatment]. We heard that these units are linked to the CIA, and salaries are paid in U.S. dollars. To help my mother, I joined the 02 unit.

7:18 [Music builds] As intelligence comes in, the raid is conducted. It is our commander who gives us information. Hadi: We just have the shooting order. Baseer: No fewer than 80 forces conduct a raid. Ten to 12 of them are Americans. [Percussive, fast-tempo music] [Wind blows] Lynzy: In 2019, Baseer and Hadi told me about a night raid in Logar province,

8:04 when they killed four members of a family. I’d later speak to the surviving grandfather and uncle. This was not the first time they had killed civilians, but it was this raid that felt like a turning point in their lives. [Barrage of gunshots] [Gunshots continue] [A scream] Grandfather, Ghulam: Our gate was sturdy, but they destroyed it with a bomb. [Percussive music] My granddaughter was close, she was wounded in the abdomen.

8:57 They yelled: “Come out with your hands up!” Uncle, Matiullah: I shouted in return, stop shooting! People have already been killed. [Buzz of helicopter overhead] [Dramatic music builds] [Far-off gunshots heard in the wind]

9:48 Baseer: The intelligence was wrong. There was no single Taliban fighter among the dead. These killings happened at our hands. [Somber music] Uncle, Matiullah: They saw that the martyrs did not look like the Taliban; they were little children. Our father already suffers from heart disease, and this tragedy has had a mental effect on him. [Music continues] Baseer: Zero Units aim at eliminating terrorism in Afghanistan. [Cigarette burns]

10:34 In some places, however, they increased it. [Bombs explode] The Americans claim they have the best technology. Why can't they discriminate between civilians and enemies? They are Americans killing Afghans, and we are Afghans killing Afghans. [Hum of a city] [Slow music begins]

11:21 [Crinkle of pages turning] [Quiet clack of a computer keyboard] [Click of a mouse] News clips: What you are looking at is Taliban fighters inside the presidential palace. Lynzy: I felt so helpless when the Taliban took control of the country again. After everything I’ve seen in the last four years, I wonder why the U.S. has never been held accountable for the damage they leave behind.

12:09 Everyone in Afghanistan has a shared pain about what these raids have left behind, whether that’s the families or the soldiers conducting them. [Water ripples] [Delicate music] Night raids failed in Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan. Who will suffer when America uses the same failed tactic in their next war? [Quiet footsteps]

12:55 [Music continues] [Footsteps] I didn't finish finding all my answers. That's true. But I did get some closure through Baseer, strangely enough. His remorse helped loosen something in me. Although he didn’t kill my family, he is a perpetrator. If Baseer was brave enough to speak about the pain he had caused, I could also share my own story and talk about the pain I had buried.

13:48 I could also start healing. [Shouting of a crowd] [Traditional music] [Music continues]

16:00 [Somber, slow music begins] [Music continues]