Karzai orders NATO to stop bombing houses

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan’s president on Tuesday ordered NATO to stop bombing homes, citing the risk of civilian casualties and putting him on a collision course with his Western protectors who insist the attacks are an essential weapon and will continue.

It was Hamid Karzai’s strongest statement against alliance airstrikes and further complicated a difficult relationship with the Obama administration as it prepares a troop drawdown in the war.

Karzai’s remarks were prompted by a recent air attack that mistakenly killed a group of children and women in southern Helmand province. Karzai declared it would be the last.

“From this moment, airstrikes on the houses of people are not allowed,” Karzai told reporters in Kabul.

Ordering airstrikes is a command decision in Afghanistan, where NATO spokeswoman Maj. Sunset Belinsky insisted they would continue.

“Coalition forces constantly strive to reduce the chance of civilian casualties and damage to structures,” Belinsky said. “But when the insurgents use civilians as a shield and put our forces in a position where their only option is to use airstrikes, then they will take that option.”

Karzai’s spokesman said the president plans to stand firm on this issue, regardless of the fallout with NATO.

“The president was very clear today about the fact that bombardments on Afghan homes and Afghan civilians are unacceptable and must be stopped. There is no room for back and forth on this,” Waheed Omar said. “The president was clear in saying that any such strikes in the future will make the Afghan government react unilaterally.”

Karzai did not explain what his threat of “unilateral action” but said he plans to discuss it with NATO officials next week.

“If this is repeated, Afghanistan has a lot of ways of stopping it, but we don’t want to go there. We want NATO to stop the raids on its own,” he said.

While Karzai regularly and publicly condemns NATO for not doing enough to reduce civilian casualties, international military officials respond that their private discussions with Karzai and his ministers often have a very different tone. In private, Afghan officials say international troops should keep up the pace of night raids and airstrikes because they work. Those officials have always spoke anonymously so as not to contradict the Afghan government.

NATO said at least nine civilians were killed in Saturday’s airstrike in Helmand province. Afghan officials have said 14 were killed, including at least 10 children and two women.

NATO officials apologized for the Nawzad district strike, saying they launched it in response to an insurgent attack on a coalition patrol that killed a U.S. Marine. The fighting has also continued to take the lives of international and Afghan forces. In the latest incident Tuesday, a NATO service member was killed in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, according to a statement from NATO forces. The U.S. also announced that three of its service members died in a bomb attack in the east on Saturday.