Key facts
- Judges formally closed the line of inquiry into alleged crimes by US troops, dormant since 2021, and a probe into ISIS-K.
- The chamber said prosecutors had not shown they could effectively investigate the allegations apart from the Taliban probe.
- The office of the prosecutor told Reuters it had appealed the decision but gave no further details.
- Arrest warrants against four Afghan Taliban leaders remain in effect after the case was split.
- The United States has issued institutional sanctions against the court, citing warrants for Israeli officials and the Afghanistan inquiry.
Judges at the International Criminal Court issued a decision to formally close part of the prosecutor's investigations into Afghanistan, ending the line of inquiry that had looked at alleged crimes by US troops and a probe into the Islamic State Khorasan militia, court documents show. The chamber said prosecutors had not shown they could effectively investigate the allegations apart from the Taliban probe. The US troop inquiry had lain dormant since 2021.
The office of the prosecutor told Reuters on Friday, November 13, 2026, that it had appealed the decision but could not give further details. The step is the latest in a legal tussle between prosecutors and judges over the Afghanistan case.
Earlier this year, judges ordered prosecutors to split the Afghanistan inquiries into two: one focused on alleged crimes by the Taliban since 2021, and the other on the original inquiry, which also looked at alleged war crimes by US troops but shifted toward the ISIS-K militia. The split means arrest warrants issued against four Afghan Taliban leaders remain in effect.
The United States has issued institutional sanctions against the court, citing opposition to arrest warrants issued for Israeli officials and the investigation into actions of US soldiers in Afghanistan. It is unclear whether formally closing part of the case will address American concerns about the court exerting jurisdiction over US nationals, because the move does not change the court's founding statute, which says the court can prosecute anyone accused of atrocity crimes committed on the territory of ICC member states.