By IRNA,
Kabul : The Afghan government on Monday obliged foreign troops including NATO and the United States not to bomb suspected areas without getting clearance from respective officials to avoid civilian casualties.
The government ministers demanded a status of forces agreement, which would stipulate that the authority and responsibilities of international forces be negotiated, and they said that aerial bombing, illegal detentions and house raids by international forces must be stopped.
The declaration came after several military operations involving American forces resulted in heavy civilian casualties, most recently air strikes in western Afghanistan on Friday that killed more than 90 people, most of them women and children.
The United States military is investigating the latest episode; it earlier said the air strikes had killed 5 civilians and 25 militants.
As security has deteriorated in the country and economic conditions have worsened, the government and its international partners have encountered rising popular dissatisfaction.
Heavy-handed bombing raids and house raids, which are seen as culturally unacceptable by many Afghans who guard their privacy fiercely, and the detention of hundreds of suspects for years without trial at the Bagram air base and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have stirred up Afghans’ strong independent streak and ancient dislike of invaders.
President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for foreign forces to coordinate operations with Afghan forces and local authorities, and for greater care to be used with air strikes.
Karzai warned that civilian casualties were undermining the fight against terrorism, and he questioned, as many Afghans do, why Afghan villagers were under attack when the militants’ training camps in Pakistan were left untouched.
“The war against terrorism is not in Afghan villages,” he said.
“The war against terrorism is elsewhere, and that’s where the war should go.”
The Council of Ministers’ declaration was issued after a weekly Monday meeting that is usually led by the president and attended by about 25 ministers and the two vice presidents.
The council condemned the rising number of civilian casualties and said: “The issues of uncoordinated house searches and harassing civilians have also been of concern to the government of Afghanistan.
Unfortunately, to date, our demands have not been addressed.
Rather, more civilians, including women and children, are losing their lives as a result of air raids.”