Karzai blasts U.S., NATO for deaths

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan President Hamid Karzai chastised U.S. and NATO-led troops Saturday for their “careless operations” and accused them of killing more than 90 civilians in the past 10 days, as fresh reports emerged of more noncombatant deaths.

Using some of his strongest language yet against the foreign forces that occupy his country, Karzai asserted that “Afghan life is not cheap, and it should not be treated as such.”

“We do not want any more military operations without coordinating them with the Afghan government,” a visibly angry Karzai said at a news conference in Kabul. “From now onwards, they have to work the way we ask them to work in here.”

It was unclear late Saturday whether Karzai’s statement indicated that he plans to formally restrict the operations of the 32,000 NATO-led troops and 21,000 U.S.-led troops who patrol Afghanistan.

Karzai has the power to place limits on what foreign forces can do here, though any attempt to exert that control would probably produce a strong backlash from the United States and other countries that contribute troops to Afghanistan. Military officials from those nations have said they need to act aggressively to quell a stubborn Taliban insurgency, and they say militants are deliberately provoking civilian deaths by hiding in residential areas.

Spokesmen for the NATO and U.S.-led forces declined to comment on Karzai’s statements.

Karzai, a pro-Western leader who has generally welcomed international troops over the past five-and-a-half years, spoke after a series of incidents in recent days in which dozens of civilians have allegedly been killed in U.S. and NATO-led airstrikes.

Accusations of another such incident came Saturday, when the Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, said international troops had fired rockets across the border overnight Friday and killed 10 civilians, including children. Arshad said that three or four houses were destroyed in the attack, and that 14 people were injured.

“We have protested about what happened,” Arshad said. “They were innocent people.”

A NATO forces spokesman, Maj. John Thomas, acknowledged the Pakistani report and said the civilian death toll could end up being higher than 10.