[Tolo News] Despite President Karzai's persistent calls for and end to air strikes, a top NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
official said air strikes on houses are coordinated with Afghan forces and "they continue to be necessary".
Speaking in Brussels NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu called NATO air strikes still essential saying the alliance takes Karzai's concerns very seriously and would continue to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties.
"In many of these operations, Afghans are in the lead," she said.
On Tuesday President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
renewed his warning against NATO saying air strikes on Afghans' homes will no longer be tolerated.
"From this moment on, air strikes on the homes of Afghan people are not allowed," Karzai told news hounds.
President Karzai said he repeatedly told his international partners to avoid civilian deaths in their air strikes.
NATO air strikes on the homes of Afghan people will make foreign forces look like an occupation force and the world knows how Afghans treat occupiers, Karzai said.
"If this is repeated, Afghanistan has a lot of ways to stop it, but we want NATO to stop the raids on its own, because we want to continue to cooperate," he said.
Reacting to Karzai's criticism of NATO air strikes, Pentagon Chief Robert Gates said his criticism of air strikes that lead to the death of civilians shows his peoples pain and the need for joint probes to avoid such deaths.
"I think President Karzai is reflecting the pain and suffering that the Afghan people have had to endure," Gates told news hounds yesterday.
"I think he also recognises -- and the Afghan people do -- that we are their ally, we are their friend and we are trying to help them develop the capability to protect themselves," Mr Gates further said.
Civilian casualties has long been a controversial issue and a factor straining Kabul relations with Washington.
Another NATO Spokeswoman Maj. Sunset Belinsky highlighted the need for the operations to continue in the country.
"Coalition forces constantly strive to reduce the chance of civilian casualties and damage to structures," Belinsky said, "but when the gunnies use civilians as a shield and put our forces in a position where their only option is to use air strikes, then they will take that option."
President Karzai's warnings came after 14 non-combatants were killed in a NATO air strike in Nawzad district of the southern Helmand province.