Karzai op-ed column says US, allies still have ‘miles to go’ in Afghanistan

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Karzai says civilian deaths hurt Afghan operations

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — The U.S. and its allies still have “miles to go” in Afghanistan and international forces have yet to secure large parts of the country, President Hamid Karzai said in comments published Saturday.

In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Karzai said civilian casualties are harming efforts to bring security.

“We have traveled far together, but the international effort in Afghanistan still has miles to go,” said Karzai, who heads to Washington on Monday after months of rocky relations with the Obama administration.

He urged an end to night raids and house searches that have been known to kill civilians as well as insurgents.

Civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. and other international forces are highly sensitive in Afghanistan. Public outrage over such deaths prompted the top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal last year to tighten the rules on the use of airstrikes if civilians are at risk.

Karzai, who was at Bagram Air Field on Saturday with several of his ministers, met Saturday with wounded soldiers at the base, offering a lapis lazuli bowl as a gift to U.S. Army Pfc. Jordan Wright, 19, of Russellville, Tenn. Wright suffered a broken leg in a roadside bomb blast May 6.

Karzai later spoke to about 50 U.S. troops at the base and thanked them for training Afghan forces.

“In this undertaking, you alongside Afghan forces are doing all that you can to bring us success,” he said.

A top U.S. commander also briefed Karzai on special operations, but no details were released.

Tadd Sholtis, a U.S. air force lieutenant colonel, said Karzai and McChrystal meet about once a week to discuss issues including special operations.

“It’s important for special ops to get Karzai’s views,” he said. “And it will give President Karzai a better understanding about how these operations are useful for combating insurgents. We make mistakes, but these are very precise operations against high-ranking to mid-level people in the insurgent network.”

Karzai is hoping his upcoming trip to Washington will bring renewed legitimacy and the political backing he needs for possible peace talks with the Taliban.

The Washington trip comes at a critical juncture in the war. At the same time that more troops and aid are moving into Afghanistan, the U.S. has made it clear that its involvement is not open-ended. President Barack Obama, who gathered his national security team to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan on Thursday at the White House, wants to start pulling out troops in July 2011 if conditions allow. That’s 15 months away.

Also Saturday, NATO said that a service member died following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan on Friday. It did not provide further details.

Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that the government was preparing to send a high-level delegation from several ministries to neighboring Iran to investigate recent reports of the abuse of Afghan prisoners there.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Zahir Faqiri said Afghan officials have sent letters to Iran seeking information about reported executions of Afghans on death row.