Karzai ultimatum alters outlook on U.S. drawdown

KABUL, Afghanistan — In demanding that the U.S.-led coalition stop all airstrikes on Afghan homes, President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday drew his government closer than ever to direct opposition to the United States presence in Afghanistan, a position that could complicate President Obama's looming decision on how quickly to withdraw American troops.

The immediate provocation for Karzai's remarks was a U.S. military airstrike in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province that killed at least nine civilians, including children.

Tuesday's demand followed his earlier insistence that foreign forces end night raids, stop unilateral operations and stay off roads and out of Afghan villages.

"I warn NATO forces that a repeat of airstrikes on the houses of Afghanistan's people will not be allowed," Karzai said at a news conference at the presidential palace. "The people of Afghanistan will not allow this to happen anymore, and there is no excuse for such strikes."

He added that foreign forces are close to "the behavior of an occupation" and the "Afghan people know how to deal with that" — a thinly veiled threat that Afghans could rise up and drive out NATO as with past occupying armies. He said Afghanistan would be "forced to take unilateral action" if the bombardment of Afghan homes did not cease, but he did not specify what that action would be.

"History is a witness how Afghanistan deals with occupiers," he said.

Karzai lacks authority to order NATO to stop airstrikes on homes. But his criticism strikes at a central weapon for American military planners: Airstrikes have surged in the past year and numbered nearly 300 in April.

Obama will make a decision in June on how fast to begin withdrawing troops in July. Meanwhile, the United States and Afghanistan are negotiating the terms of their strategic partnership post-2014, when Afghan authorities are supposed to have full responsibility for the nation's security. Some U.S. officials said Karzai might be attempting to strengthen his position before the arrival of a new U.S. military commander, Lt. Gen. John R. Allen, and a new U.S. ambassador, Ryan Crocker.

The U.S. military operates in Afghanistan under a NATO mandate and does not have a bilateral "status of forces" agreement with Afghanistan that would legally restrict operations. One U.S. military official found "mind-boggling" Karzai's demands to stop night raids and coalition airstrikes.

Since U.S. Gen. David Petraeus took command last July, the number of U.S. and allied airstrikes in Afghanistan has soared. While his predecessor, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, had clamped down on airstrikes to avoid angering Afghan civilians, Petraeus and his staff have been more aggressive, roughly boosting the number of airstrikes to levels that existed before McChrystal took charge in June 2010.

The monthly tally of allied airstrikes — flights that resulted in dropped bombs, fired missiles or other weapons discharges — peaked in October at 1,043, according to U.S. Air Force statistics. The monthly figure fell to 287 in April, the most recent month for which complete statistics are available. Overall, the number of airstrikes in the first four months of 2011 has been more than 80 percent higher than the same period last year.

United Nations estimates attribute the majority of civilian casualties in Afghanistan to insurgents.

The U.N. recorded 2,777 civilian deaths last year in Afghanistan, up 15 percent from 2009. Of those, 75 percent were caused by insurgents, and 16 percent were attributed to NATO and Afghan forces, says the U.N. mission's annual report. Nine percent of civilian deaths could not be attributed.