U.S. "anti-terror" operations lack democratic accountability: Al Jazeera report

DOHA, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Twenty years have passed since the U.S. declared "major combat operations in Iraq have ended," yet the U.S. military deployment under the pretext of fighting terrorism around the world has not ceased, Al Jazeera reported on Monday.

The declaration to end major combat operations in Iraq, made just 43 days after the U.S. began a ground invasion of Iraq, was intended to signify the initiation of the end for Washington's self-proclaimed "global war on terror" that followed 9/11 attacks in 2001, Al Jazeera said.

Instead of ending the operations, the U.S. chose to increase its military presence in Iraq, with the number of troops peaking at approximately 168,000 in 2007, despite no evidence had showed that Iraq was involved in 9/11 attacks, it said.

The U.S. continued to expand its "global war on terror" and conducted an unspecified number of military strikes and operations, sometimes in collaboration with partner forces, targeting those deemed threats to the U.S. in more than 20 countries, it pointed out.

The "war on terror" continues to be defined by a "lack of democratic accountability", the report quoted Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program, as saying.

That lack of accountability has continued as U.S. involvement has seen a "metastasis" during the past two decades, most notably spreading into an array of countries across Africa and Asia, Ebright said.