U.S. to heed limits on Afghan airstrikes

No attacks on civilians, Karzai demands

Afghan President Hamid Karzai addresses military officers in Kabul on Saturday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai addresses military officers in Kabul on Saturday.

— The commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said Sunday that his forces were prepared to comply with President Hamid Karzai’s demand that Afghan forces stop requesting international airstrikes in residential areas.

Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford downplayed the effect of Karzai’s directive, even though Afghanistan’s fledgling security forces rely entirely on U.S. and NATO warplanes for air power against Taliban-led insurgents.

“We can continue to support the Afghan National Security Forces and meet the president’s intent,” Dunford said.

“This is a sovereign nation and the president is exercising sovereignty,” he added.

On Saturday, in a speech at the Afghan National Military Academy, Karzai denounced an Afghan-NATO attack last week that local officials said killed 10 civilians, in addition to four Taliban commanders in eastern Kunar province. The Afghan leader said he would issue a decree that “no Afghan military and security forces in any circumstances can ask for the foreigners’ planes for carrying out operations in Afghanistan’s homes and villages.”

The remarks represented the latest broadside by Karzai against the coalition that has trained, equipped and financed the force of 350,000 soldiers and police who are due to take responsibility for Afghanistan’s security later this year.

Civilian casualties have long been a point of contention between Karzai and the coalition, although NATO forces in recent months have implemented rules limiting airstrikes in populated areas. U.S. officials say that civilian casualties in coalition operations fell 49 percent from 2011 to 2012 and that the number of children killed or wounded in air operations fell nearly 40 percent.

“We have constraints and restraints on each operation” to minimize civilian casualties, Dunford said.

The U.S.-led military coalition said last June that it would limit airstrikes to a self-defense weapon of last resort for troops and would avoid hitting structures that could house civilians.

The coalition, however, can still carry out airstrikes on its own accord.

Last week, Karzai summoned Dunford to explain the Kunar attack. The coalition has declined to discuss the incident, saying only that it was investigating the reports of civilian deaths.

Military analysts said that Karzai’s decree, if issued, could hamstring Afghan security units, very few of which are capable of operating without coalition support. This spring, say U.S. officials, Afghan security forces will take the lead in security operations nationwide, setting up a crucial test for the young force as insurgent operations usually pick up in the warm weather months.

“It could provide ground for the insurgency to increase their areas of operations,” said Jawed Kohistani, an independent military analyst in Kabul. “We have the summer coming and insurgent activities may increase, which puts more pressure on Afghan forces.

“I hope that the Afghan security forces and their leadership convince the president that there is need for NATO air support.”

The response to Karzai’s comments from Afghan military officials wasn’t immediately clear, but Dunford, who took over as coalition commander last week, was to meet Sunday with Sher Mohammad Karimi, the Afghan army chief of staff.

“We’re going to work through the details [of Karzai’s order] in the coming days,” Dunford said.

If airstrikes are limited, “there are other ways we can support the Afghan forces besides aviation,” Dunford added, without elaborating. Experts say that could signal an expanded role for U.S. and Afghan special forces or ground-based artillery systems, which carry the risk of inaccuracies.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said 83 civilians were killed and 46 wounded in aerial attacks by international military forces in the first half of 2012. That figure was down 23 percent from the same period of 2011 - the deadliest year for civilians in the Afghan war. It said two thirds of the casualties last year were women and children, and insurgents were responsible for the overwhelming majority of the deaths.

Information for this article was contributed by Shashank Bengali of the Los Angeles Times; and by Patrick Quinn, Heidi Vogt and Rahim Faiez of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/18/2013

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