NATO air strikes on houses in Afghanistan are necessary and will continue in coordination with Afghan forces, the alliance said today, after Afghani president Hamid Karzai said such operations must stop.
Spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said NATO and Afghan authorities are investigating Saturday's bombing of a compound in Helmand province, which Mr Karzai said left 14 civilians dead, but made clear there would be no halt to such operations.
‘There will be continued coordination with Afghan security forces on such operations. They are necessary, they continue to be necessary, but they are conducted in coordination and together with Afghan security forces,’ she told reporters.
Earlier, Mr Karzai warned NATO-led forces in Afghanistan that they were at risk of being seen as an occupying force rather than an ally after a spate of civilian casualties, and said he would take unspecified ‘action’ if they continue.
Raids on Afghan homes in pursuit of insurgents were ‘not allowed’, and the patience of the Afghan people with the tactic had run out, Mr Karzai said, underlining the challenge of winning popular support for an increasingly violent war.
‘We see NATO from the point of view of an ally... If they don't stop air strikes on Afghan homes, their presence in Afghanistan will be considered as an occupying force and against the will of the Afghan people,’ he told reporters.
