Airstrikes gone awry: ‘US apology for civilian deaths not enough’

Afghan President says the deaths are main cause of rift with US

KABUL:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told General David Petraeus, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, on Sunday his apology for a foreign air strike that killed nine children last week was “not enough”.

At a meeting with his security advisers at which Petraeus was present, Karzai said civilian casualties by foreign troops were “no longer acceptable” to the Afghan government or to the Afghan people, Karzai’s palace said in a statement.

Civilian casualties caused by Nato-led and Afghan forces hunting insurgents have again become a major source of friction between Karzai and his Western backers.

In the meeting, Petraeus apo­lo­gis­ed for the deaths of the nine children in eastern Kunar province last Tuesday, saying the killings were a “great mistake” and there would be no repeat.

“In return, the president said the apology was not enough and stressed that civilian casualties caused during operations by coalition forces were the main cause of strained relations between the United States and Afghanistan,” the palace said.

“The people of Afghanistan are fed up with such horrific incidents and apologies or condemnation is not going to heal their wounds,” it quoted Karzai as saying.

Hours before Karzai’s statement, hundreds of people chanting “Death to America” protested in the Afghan capital against the recent spate of civilian deaths, in a sign of the simmering anti-Western feeling among many ordinary Afghans.

International concern over civilian casualties has grown, and the fallout from the recent incidents is even threatening to hamper peace and reconciliation efforts, with a gradual drawdown of the 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan to begin in July.

President Barack Obama also expressed “deep regret” over the killings and the United Nations called for a review of air strikes. There have been at least four incidents of civilian casualties by foreign troops in the east in the past two weeks.

Demonstrators marched through the centre of Kabul, some carrying banners bearing pictures of blood-covered dead children they said were killed in air strikes by foreign forces.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2011.