WASHINGTON, Feb 7: A US newspaper charged on Thursday that dozens of Afghan warlords were given $200,000 payments and satellite phones to secure their cooperation in the war against the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda allies.

In a report from Peshawar, The Washington Times quotes bankers, money changers and others close to the transactions to say that more than 35 local commanders made banking transactions involving identical $200,000 sums late last year, in at least some cases after meetings with US officials.

The transactions totalled more than $7 million and helped prompt a spending spree on four-wheel-drive vehicles in Pakistan.

Asked about the payments, a senior Western diplomat based in Pakistan said: “It sounds like someone in the State Department finally learned how Afghanistan works. The commanders have become fairly adept at selling themselves, and they always need money for guns.”

However, a State Department official in Washington denied knowledge of such a programme, calling it “bizarre” and “not something the State Department would normally do.” A CIA spokesman declined to comment.

Meanwhile, it is reported that 27 Afghans held after the bungled Jan 24 US attack on the village of Hazar Qadam in which 19 people were killed have been released from American custody and handed over to the Afghan authorities.

The CIA has compensated the families of those killed in the attack, making cash payments through local Afghan officials.

Giving details of the Jan 24 incident, the Associated Press has reported that US special forces men burst into a religious school in Hazar Qadam, presumably mistaking it for a Taliban or Al Qaeda compound, and killed 19 people, most of them where they slept. An inquiry into the incident is still in progress by the US Central Command.

An inquiry is also continuing in the attack on a convoy outside Khost on Dec 20 in which at least 12 people were killed. Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai has said the convoy consisted of friendly tribal elders.