Meet terms or no deal, Karzai again tells U.S.

An Afghan police walks ahead of members of civil society organizations for their protection as they march in a street, during an anti terrorism demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014. Hundreds of Afghans gathered outside a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul on Sunday to protest against Taliban attack that killed 21 people. The assault Friday by a Taliban bomber and two gunmen against the La Taverna du Liban restaurant was deadliest single attack against foreign civilians in the course of a nearly 13-year U.S.-led war there now approaching its end.  They chanted slogans against terrorism as they laid flowers at the site of the attack. The dead included 13 foreigners and eight Afghans, all civilians. The attack came as security has been deteriorating and apprehension has been growing among Afghans over their country's future as U.S.-led foreign forces prepare for a final withdrawal at the end of the year. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)
An Afghan police walks ahead of members of civil society organizations for their protection as they march in a street, during an anti terrorism demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014. Hundreds of Afghans gathered outside a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul on Sunday to protest against Taliban attack that killed 21 people. The assault Friday by a Taliban bomber and two gunmen against the La Taverna du Liban restaurant was deadliest single attack against foreign civilians in the course of a nearly 13-year U.S.-led war there now approaching its end. They chanted slogans against terrorism as they laid flowers at the site of the attack. The dead included 13 foreigners and eight Afghans, all civilians. The attack came as security has been deteriorating and apprehension has been growing among Afghans over their country's future as U.S.-led foreign forces prepare for a final withdrawal at the end of the year. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan’s president demanded Sunday that the United States no longer carry out military operations or airstrikes and must jumpstart peace talks with the Taliban before his country signs a security deal to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan after this year.

President Hamid Karzai’s deepening anti-American rhetoric comes as the Taliban intensify their assaults ahead of the planned withdrawal and after Friday’s militant raid on a popular Kabul restaurant, the deadliest single attack against foreign civilians in the course of the nearly 13-year U.S.-led war.

Although Karzai has made similar demands in the past, he has in recent weeks ratcheted up his condemnations of purported U.S. failures as Afghans look fearfully ahead to an uncertain future.

Karzai made the statement after being presented with the findings of an investigation into a joint Afghan-U.S. military operation last week that resulted in civilian casualties that he blamed on a U.S. military airstrike.

The U.S.-led international military coalition, however, provided a sharply different account Sunday of what happened during the two-day operation against insurgents in eastern Parwan province, saying it was an Afghan-led effort and carried out at the request of the government.

Karzai convened his National Security Council on Sunday to discuss the Parwan attack.

“Airstrikes are a matter of concern for the Afghan people. The National Security Council said there should be an immediate end to all operations and airstrikes by foreign forces,” a statement said.

Karzai sent a delegation to investigate the Wednesday airstrike in the Ghorband district of Parwan province, which borders Kabul. The delegation blamed the U.S. for ordering an operation that it said killed 12 civilians and four Taliban fighters. It further said local authorities were not informed about the operation.

The coalition, which is carrying out its own investigation, said the government was not only aware but had requested the operation ahead of the country’s April 5 presidential elections because the area had fallen under Taliban control.

“The operation was requested by the governor in response to those conditions,” the coalition said in a statement. “The resulting plan, approved through the Ministry of Defense, was a deliberate clearing operation to disrupt insurgent activity, based on intelligence obtained primarily by Afghan forces.”

The coalition said a team of more than 70 Afghan commandos with a few U.S. Special Operations Forces carried out the operation. Senior U.S. military officials, who requested anonymity as they weren’t allowed to brief journalists about an ongoing investigation, said the commandos came under heavy fire almost immediately. An Afghan commando and U.S. soldier were killed, they said.

Afghan National Security Forces had nine U.S. advisers with them when they became trapped by withering fire from residential homes, they said.

“At that point, the ANSF and coalition advisers were unable to maneuver or withdraw without sustaining significant casualties. The combined force required defensive air support in order to suppress enemy fire from two compounds,” the coalition statement said.

One senior U.S. military official said the decision to ask for air support was taken “in extremis” by the Afghan ground commander. The official said there were two civilians killed and one wounded.

Karzai’s comments come as he has declined to sign an agreement allowing some U.S. forces to stay past the planned withdrawal. Karzai tentatively endorsed the deal after it was completed last October, but first refused to sign it until after it was approved by a council of tribal elders known as the loya jirga in November.

But after the elders approved it, Karzai still declined to sign it, now saying he wants his successor to decide after the elections.

The U.S. had wanted the deal to be signed by Dec. 31 because it needs time to prepare to keep thousands of U.S. troops in the country for up to a decade. NATO allies also have said they won’t stay if the Americans pull out.

The agreement aims to help train and develop Afghan forces, while also allowing for a smaller counterterrorism force to pursue al-Qaida fighters and other groups.

Karzai again demanded Sunday that the U.S. do more to start talks with the Taliban, although an American effort to get them going through intermediaries in Qatar collapsed last summer. The Taliban have refused to talk directly with Karzai, his government or its representatives.

Karzai’s statement further warned that the country risked slipping into “feudalism” if his conditions were not met.

Meanwhile Sunday, hundreds of Afghans gathered outside a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul to protest a Taliban assault there that killed 21 people Friday. A suicide bomber and two gunmen attacked La Taverna du Liban, killing 13 foreigners and eight Afghans, all of them civilians.

Protesters chanted against terrorism as they laid flowers.

“Today, we stand against terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, and the killing of the civilians by terrorists,” demonstrator Salma Alkozai said.

Also on Sunday, a bomb exploded inside a vehicle at a Pakistani military compound in the country’s northwest, killing at least 20 paramilitary personnel and wounding 30 more, officials and militants said.

The blast targeted a vehicle in a convoy about to leave a military base in the town of Bannu and drive west to the North Waziristan tribal area, police official Inyat Ali Khan said. Pakistan’s military said the blast wounded 30 troops.

A security official, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said a road curfew was in place Sunday to secure the transportation of troops to and from the tribal region, where military convoys have been hit by roadside bombings and ambushes.

The troops, the official said, were to be ferried in an unmarked vehicle.

“The vehicle was rented from a local bazaar. We have a shortage of vehicles,” the official said. “Most probably, the bomb was already planted inside the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle has also been killed.”

A government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that paramilitary and other security forces routinely rented unmarked vehicles as a cover to hide the identity of the passengers.

The Taliban claimed the attack and called it a suicide bombing.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, said the attack had been carried out to avenge the death of Waliur Rehman, the group’s former second in command. He was killed lastyear in a U.S. drone strike.

“We will avenge the killing of every one of our fellows through such attacks,” the spokesman warned.

The explosion was heard and felt across the town of Bannu.

“I rushed out of my home and saw black, thick smoke billowing out of the cantonment’s Razmak gate area,” resident Sajjad Khan said. He said troops quickly cordoned off the area and ordered residents to go back inside their homes.

North Waziristan is considered a safe haven for al-Qaida-linked militants. Pakistani troop convoys often are hit by roadside bombs, but blasts inside military compounds are rare.

The Pakistani military has been fighting for years in the tribal areas against militants who want to overthrow the government and establish a hard-line Islamic state. The tribal region is also a refuge for insurgents fighting NATO and U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

Also in Pakistan, officials said today that a bomb blast in Rawalpindi killed nine people.

Officials said the blast also wounded 30 people.

They said police are investigating whether it was a suicide bomber on a motorcycle who blew himself up.

Rawalpindi is next to the capital of Islamabad and is home to Pakistan’s military headquarters. The explosion happened in an area where there are many military installations.

Information for this article was contributed by Rahim Faiez, Ijaz Mohammed, Rebecca Santana, Riaz Khan and staff members of The Associated Press and by Ismail Khan of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/20/2014

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