Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned the NATO-led force in his country yesterday that launching attacks on homes in pursuit of insurgents was “not allowed” and that patience with the tactic had run out after a spate of civilian casualties.
“NATO must learn that air strikes on Afghan homes are not allowed and that Afghan people have no tolerance for that anymore,” Karzai told a press conference in Kabul.
Karzai reacted angrily after NATO air strikes on a compound inadvertently killed at least nine people — most of them children — in southern Helmand on Sunday. The strikes were ordered after a patrol had come under fire.
Photo: AFP
Civilian casualties caused by foreign troops, usually in air strikes or “night raids” on Afghan homes as they hunt insurgents, have long been a major source of friction between Karzai and his Western backers.
Karzai warned that Afghans had had enough of the tactics, which he said were a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
“If they don’t stop air strikes on Afghan homes, their presence in Afghanistan will be considered as an occupying force and against the will of the Afghan people,” he said.
“The international community has helped us a lot, but they cannot risk the lives of Afghan people, this can’t be compensated,” Karzai said, adding that he had warned NATO commanders “a hundred times.”
Tension boiled over at the weekend after the strikes on the compound in Helmand’s Nawzad district. Graphic television footage after the strikes showed grieving relatives holding the bodies of several children, including babies.
The commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force later apologized for the deaths, saying the strikes on the compound had been ordered because insurgents were using it as a base.
US and NATO commanders have stepped up the use of air strikes and night raids in the past 12 months, arguing they are effective weapons against insurgents who often hide among the Afghan population, but commanders have significantly tightened the rules for using both tactics over the past two years amid a growing outcry from Afghan leaders.
UN figures show that at least three-quarters of civilians are caused by insurgents, but it is those by NATO forces which cause the most anger among ordinary Afghans.
Karzai repeated that he had given NATO a “last warning” over air strikes and night raids, but again did not go into any details about what his government would do if the tactics were not stopped. He said he hoped to meet NATO commanders in Kabul later this week.
“Afghanistan has a lot of ways of stopping it ... but we would like NATO to stop it on their own,” Karzai said.
The latest NATO strikes came at a time of high anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan and with a gradual security transition from foreign forces to Afghans scheduled to begin in several areas next month.
The argument over air strikes and night raids also comes at a time of heightened violence across the country since the Taliban began their spring offensive at the start of last month.
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