Afghan leader lashes out at US as shooting suspect flown abroad

PanARMENIAN.Net - President Hamid Karzai on Friday, March 16 again lashed out at the United States over a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians blamed on an American sergeant, heightening public tensions between the two countries, AFP reported.

His comments underscored deep anger in the war-torn country, one day after he said international forces should leave villages, potentially jeopardising NATO operations two years before combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan.

"The Afghan government didn't receive cooperation from the USA regarding the surrender of the US soldiers to the Afghan government. This (civilian casualties) has been going on for too long," Karzai told reporters.

"This is by all means the end of the rope here," added Karzai, who has long called for an end to US raids on Afghan homes and who came under pressure Friday from relatives to take corrective action.

"This behavior can't be tolerated. We have not asked for money. We ask for justice rather than compensation," he added.

Afghan leaders demanded that the suspect face a public trial in Afghanistan over the killings - mainly of women and children - in the southern province of Kandahar as villagers slept before dawn on Sunday.

But the 38-year-old decorated soldier was instead flown to Kuwait this week and on Friday his lawyer said he was en route to a maximum security detention centre at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, a first step towards being charged.