Karzai accuses US troops of killing civilians

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cadec530-eb4a-11dd-bb6e-0000779fd2ac.html

Karzai accuses US troops of killing civilians
By Jon Boone in Kabul
January 26 2009

Hamid Karzai accused US troops yesterday of killing 16 civilians during a weekend military raid, putting further strain on the already brittle relationship between Afghanistan and the new Barack Obama administration in Washington.

The Afghan president flatly contradicted claims by the US military that all those killed during the attack early on Saturday morning were militants, and claimed two women and three children were among the dead.

In a year in which Mr Karzai intends to run for reelection, he was quick to respond to popular fury at the reports of casualties, which village elders put at 22, even though it will be days before a joint inquiry by US and Afghan officials is concluded.

Up to 1,000 Afghans protested yesterday in Mihtarlam, a small town about 50 miles north-east of Kabul, near where the incident took place. The crowd shouted anti-government slogans and pelted the provincial governor with stones.

The US military said there was no information to support the villagers' claims, saying US forces had been attacked by men and one woman firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades during an operation against a prominent Taliban commander.

Mr Karzai has become more vocal on the issue of civilian casualties in recent weeks, but yesterday's statement was the first public criticism of the US since Mr Obama took office.

The new US president's foreign policy team has made clear that Mr Karzai will have to address the weakness and corruption in his government, which they say is strengthening support for the Taliban.

But Mr Karzai says it is the deaths of civilians at the hands of foreign troops that "weaken government rule and empower the terrorists".

The presidential palace confirmed yesterday that it had sent a proposed new agreement to Washington and its Nato allies that would give Afghanistan more say over operations by foreign military forces and ban foreign soldiers from conducting house searches.