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Kabul: President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday that airstrikes carried out in Afghan villages by US and Nato troops are only killing civilians and that the international community should instead go after terror centres in Pakistan.
International forces serving under Nato and the separate US-led coalition insist that the vast majority of those killed in air raids are militants. However, they also acknowledge that civilians are killed in bombing runs.
Speaking under a tree on the grounds of the presidential palace, Karzai said the international community should take its fight across the border into Pakistan, where militants find safe havens in Pakistan's tribal region.
Only result
"The struggle against terrorism is not in the villages of Afghanistan," Karzai said. "The only result of the use of airstrikes is the killing of civilians. This is not the way to wage the fight against terrorism." Afghan officials say US or Nato airstrikes killed dozens of civilians in two incidents last month, including 47 people who were killed while walking to a wedding in the eastern province of Nangarhar on July 6.
Karzai's criticism of US and Nato airstrikes comes at a time when he appears to be making an increasing number of nationalistic appeals ahead of next year's presidential election. Karzai has indicated he plans to run.
However, Karzai's call for military action in Pakistan echoes the views of top Nato military leaders, who say that militants train, recruit and rearm in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Senior US military officials have said it will be extremely difficult to defeat the resurgent Taliban as long as sanctuaries exist on Pakistan's side of the border. US and Nato troops have limited latitude to fight or pursue militants into Pakistan.
Karzai and his government have stepped up criticism in recent months of Pakistan's military-run intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, accusing it of directly supporting fighters and of being behind the July bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, an attack that killed more than 60 people.
Not slaves
Karzai said the ISI should "abandon the idea that the Afghan government will be under its control". "We do not want to be the slaves or puppets of other countries," he said.
Top officials in the administration of US President George W. Bush are pressing the president to direct US troops in Afghanistan to be more aggressive in pursuing militants into Pakistan on foot as part of a proposed radical shift in regional counterterrorism strategy.
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