Karzai slams U.S. over massacre

"A series of blunders by the United States, including the killings in
Kandahar province on Sunday and the inadvertent burning of copies of the
Koran at a NATO base last month, has further strained already tense
relations between the countries.

"This has been going on for too long. You have heard me before. It is by
all means the end of the rope here," Karzai told reporters at the
heavily fortified presidential palace.

"The army chief has just reported that the Afghan investigation team did
not receive the cooperation that they expected from the United States.
Therefore these are all questions that we'll be raising, and raising
very loudly, and raising very clearly," Karzai said.

Karzai appeared to back the belief of the villagers, and many other
Afghans including the country's parliament, that one gunman acting alone
could not have killed so many people, and in different locations some
distance apart.

"They believe it's not possible for one person to do that. In (one)
family, in four rooms people were killed, women and children were
killed, and they were all brought together in one room and then put on
fire. That one man cannot do," Karzai said.

With twin investigations still underway by both U.S. and Afghan
officials, any discovery of more than one soldier involved in the
massacre would be a disaster for NATO, with Western leaders needing to
win over Afghans ahead of a withdrawal by most foreign combat troops in
2014.

Civilian casualties caused by NATO forces hunting insurgents are a major
source of friction between the Afghan government and its Western
backers, and have damaged efforts to win the "hearts and minds" of
locals in the decade-old war.

"Our families are finished and our houses are destroyed," said a furious
Hajji Abdul Samad Aka, who lost 11 members of his family in the killings
in two villages of Panjwayi district.

On Thursday, Karzai called for NATO troops to leave Afghan villages and
confine themselves to major bases, underscoring fury over the massacre
and clouding U.S. exit plans.

He also demanded the handover of security to Afghan police and soldiers
by 2013, a year ahead of schedule.

Such a move could undercut U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy for
Afghanistan and hamper efforts to mentor Afghan police and help with
local governance.

In a further blow to NATO hopes of a negotiated end to the decade-old
war, the Afghan Taliban said they were suspending nascent peace talks
with the United States, following the massacre and ahead of the
traditional summer fighting months.
"The Taliban leadership were and may still be serious about talks, but
instead of discussing how to end the war, they will now be persuading
the rank and file to go out again this year and fight," Kate Clark of
the Afghanistan Analysts Network said.

"That another round of fighting and killing is now on the agenda is a
difficult prospect to face," she wrote in a blog."


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