Stern warning

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday said NATO was "not allowed" to launch attacks on Afghan homes in pursuit of insurgents, and that a recent wave of civilian casualties risks turning the Afghan people against them.

"NATO must learn that airstrikes on Afghan homes are not allowed and that Afghan people have no tolerance for that anymore," Karzai told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.

"If they don't stop airstrikes on Afghan homes, their presence in Afghanistan will be considered as an occupying force and against the will of the Afghan people."

Karzai added that he had warned NATO commanders "a hundred times.

"The international community has helped us a lot, but they cannot risk the lives of Afghan people, this can't be compensated," he said.

Civilian casualties

NATO airstrikes over the weekend on a compound in southern Helmand province killed at least nine people, most of them children, NATO officials said Sunday. Afghan officials said 14 people were killed.

Graphic footage was broadcast on television, showing mourning relatives holding the bodies of several children, among them babies.

The commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southwestern Afghanistan apologized for the deaths and said the airstrikes were ordered after a patrolling US marine was killed by insurgents, who then hid in a compound and continued firing.

US and NATO forces have increased their use of airstrikes and night raids in the past year, saying they are effective in rooting out insurgents who hide among the Afghan population.

The tactics have been a point of contention with President Karzai, who said he hoped to meet ISAF commanders later this week.

"Afghanistan has a lot of ways of stopping it," he said. "But we would like NATO to stop it on their own."

UN data shows at least three-quarters of civilian deaths are caused by insurgents, but those by NATO forces cause the most anger among the Afghan people.

Author: Andrew Bowen (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Martin Kuebler