Karzai: U.S. failed to consult Afghans on airstrike that killed 18

PanARMENIAN.Net - Afghanistan's president said Saturday, June 9 that the United States failed to consult Afghan forces when calling in an airstrike that killed 18 civilians, and warned that in the future his government will consider such actions as violating the country's pact with Washington, AFP reported.

In the east, meanwhile, a Taliban suicide bomber disguised as a woman wearing a burqa killed four French soldiers when he blew himself up in a market.

Both Karzai's condemnation of the U.S. operation and the French deaths as that country rushes to pull out its combat forces were reminders that the international exit from Afghanistan is going to be far from orderly. As more agreements are signed promising Afghan sovereignty and more NATO troops are assigned the role of trainers or advisers, the international mission in the county is becoming increasingly muddled.

Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said that President Hamid Karzai met with investigators earlier in the day and concluded that U.S. troops had called in Wednesday's strike without coordinating with Afghan units.

The incident occurred during a nighttime raid on militants taking cover in a village. These raids are a major irritant in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's relationship with the international military coalition. Karzai says the raids put civilians at risk of injury or death. Military officials say such operations are key to capturing and killing Taliban leaders.

The U.S. and Afghanistan signed an agreement in April that put the Afghan government in charge of such operations — a move designed to resolve some of the longstanding tensions. But when villagers in Logar province displayed the bodies of 18 civilians killed in a U.S. airstrike on Wednesday, Karzai quickly called on the international coalition to explain itself.

Faizi said that the investigators told the president that Afghan forces had surrounded the house in question but that the U.S. troops decided not to wait for them to try to flush out the militants and called in aircraft instead. They only discovered later that there had also been women, children and old men inside.

"This airstrike was a one-sided decision, and not coordinated with Afghan security forces," Faizi said. He said that Karzai and his advisers decided after hearing the investigators' report that they would consider such actions in the future as a breach of the special operations pact.