Civilian deaths in US air raids unacceptable, says Karzai

WASHINGTON - Visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Friday that the killing of Afghan civilians by US-led military operation against the Taliban forces is not acceptable.
We believe strongly that airstrikes are not an effective way of fighting terrorism, that airstrikes rather cause civilian casualties and do not do good for the US, do not do good for Afghanistan, Karzai told CNN.
Airstrikes (against civilians) are not acceptable, Karzai said.
Agencies add: Karzai demanded an end to airstrikes, which he said killed as many as 130 civilians earlier in the week and were infuriating the public. He categorically rejected US military suggestions that Taliban insurgents rather than bombings may have been to blame.
But Karzai placed responsibility for the deaths squarely on the shoulders of the US military in air raids in western province of Farah overnight Monday to Tuesday.
This was definitely caused by bombings, he said. When asked if he was referring to US bombings, he simply responded: Yes. He did, however, recognise that Taliban use civilians as human shields.
Karzai - who faces elections in August - talked tough at the end of a trip to the US that had been meant to build support for the fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists across Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In a separate interview with US network NBC on Sunday, Karzai said that villages are not where the terrorists are.
Civilian casualties are undermining support in the Afghan people, for the war on terrorism, and for relations with America. How can you expect a people who keep losing their children to remain friendly? Karzai asked.
Meanwhile, the US military acknowledged on Saturday that airstrikes in western Afghanistan this week had killed civilians.
In a joint statement with the Afghan govt, US forces said non-combatants were among the dead but it was not possible to determine how many because the bodies had been buried.
Karzai said he had received an official update putting the number of innocent casualties from the strikes, which hit crowded homes in two villages in Farah province, as high as 130.
If that toll was confirmed it would be the deadliest single incident affecting Afghan civilians since US-led forces started battling the Taliban in 2001.
The deaths in Farah have inflamed Afghan anger about the impact of airstrikes, an issue which is already poisoning ties between Kabul and Washington. It overshadowed a meeting between Karzai and U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington this week.
The joint US-Afghan statement suggested Taliban fighters may have worsened the toll by using civilians as human shields.
According to the UN, US, Nato and Afghan government troops killed 828 civilians last year, nearly a third more than the previous year. Air strikes accounted for 552.
Meanwhile, separate bombs claimed by Taliban insurgents struck Afghan security force vehicles in southern province of Zabul, killing four men, officials said, as the Nato-led force said 16 Taliban were killed in Paktia province overnight Friday.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Yousuf Ahmadi, said his group was responsible for both attacks.