Karzai to Forbid Afghan Forces From Requesting Foreign Airstrikes

President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he would issue a decree barring Afghan security forces from asking international troops to carry out airstrikes under “any circumstances.”

The announcement came amid anger over a joint Afghan-NATO operation last week that Afghan officials said killed 10 civilians, including women and children, in northeast Kunar Province.

“I will issue a decree tomorrow that no Afghan security forces, in any circumstances, in any circumstances, can ask for the foreigners’ planes for carrying out operations on our homes and villages,” Mr. Karzai said in a speech at the Afghan National Military Academy in Kabul.

Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces, particularly as a result of airstrikes, have been the cause of much conflict between Afghans and the international coalition, led by the United States, although it has devised measures to prevent them. But the Afghan military also relies heavily on air support to gain an advantage in the fight against Taliban militants and other insurgents.

Many analysts have expressed concern that the impending withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014 will deprive government security forces of that crucial weapon.

President Obama said in his State of the Union address last week that he would withdrawabout half of the 66,000 American troops in Afghanistan within a year.

According to Gen. John R. Allen, the former top commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, the coalition can provide air support to troops on the ground anywhere in Afghanistan within 12 minutes of a request. General Allen said Afghan forces would have to get used to not having the same abilities in the future.

Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the coalition, declined to comment on Mr. Karzai’s remarks because alliance officials had not yet seen the decree.

Mr. Karzai said that General Allen’s successor, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., told him that Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, had requested the airstrike late Tuesday in the Shigal district of Kunar Province, which borders Pakistan.

Local Afghan officials said that five boys, four women and one man were killed in the bombardment. Coalition officials said an investigation was under way. Four insurgents were also reported killed, but Mr. Karzai said that did not justify the loss of so many civilian lives.

Mr. Karzai said Afghan forces were ready to take over from foreign troops despite concerns about their abilities.

“We are happy that foreign forces are withdrawing from our country,” he said. “We are happy for all their help and assistance so far, but we don’t need foreign forces to defend our country. We want our Afghan forces to defend their homeland.”

However, a former Afghan officer, Gen. Amrullah Aman, expressed surprise over Mr. Karzai’s remarks, saying that international air power was essential since one of the main weaknesses of the Afghan military is the lack of a fully developed air force.

“In a country like Afghanistan, where you don’t have heavy artillery and you don’t have air forces to support soldiers on the ground, how will it be possible to defeat an enemy that knows the area well and can hide anywhere?” General Aman said. “There must be air support to help all those ground forces on the battlefield.”

sourche: The Associated Press