Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday asked the
United Nations Security Council to put an end to civilian casualties
caused by UN-mandated international forces, the Afghan presidential
palace reported.
Karzai, who has pleaded with NATO to avoid civilian deaths during
their anti-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, repeated his
frustration in a meeting with UN Security Council representatives in
his presidential palace in Kabul, Karzai's office said in a
statement.
'The president asked the UN Security Council members to put an end
on bombardments, house searching and unnecessary detention of Afghans
by international forces in the country,' the statement said.
Representatives of 14 members of the Security Council arrived in
Kabul Monday for a three-day visit to assess Afghanistan's progress
in peace building, reconstruction, security and governance.
The delegation is headed by Giulio Terzi, Italy's ambassador to
the Security Council. The team also met with several Afghan
governmental officials and members of parliament.
The visit comes amid widespread Afghan frustration with NATO
forces, who have been blamed for mounting civilian casualties during
anti-insurgent operations. The NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) operates under the UN Security Council's
mandate.
Karzai warned that his country and the international communities
would not succeed in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan 'if
instead of targeting safe havens of terrorism, their support and
training centers, they target the villages of Afghanistan.'
Karzai and NATO-led commanders have repeatedly claimed that
Taliban militants have turned Pakistani tribal areas into
sanctuaries, from which the Taliban coordinates and plan attacks on
Afghan and international forces inside Afghanistan.
Afghan and NATO officials also blame Pakistan for not doing
enough to clamp down on militants along the border with Afghanistan.
Islamabad vehemently denies these assertions and says it has deployed
around 100,000 forces to stop cross-border infiltrations and contain
the insurgency in the area.
Taliban militants, who were ousted from power in late 2001 in the
US-led military invasion, have steadily gained power, mainly in
Afghanistan's southern and eastern regions.
The militants have intensified their attacks in recent months and
extended their control to the borders of the capital, Kabul.
In his meeting on Tuesday, Karzai also demanded that the
international community should set a timeline for elimination of
terrorism and ending the war in Afghanistan. If not timeline is set,
he threatened to enter into unilateral peace negotiations with the
Taliban.
Last week Karzai asked Taliban fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad
Omar, to negotiate, assuring him that the Afghan government would
give him safe passage to peace talks.
But Taliban spokesmen rejected the call for peace and said that
the Taliban would continue their war until some 70,000 international
troops are expelled from the country.
Meanwhile, fights with insurgents continued in several parts of
the country, military sources said Tuesday.
Coalition forces killed six armed militants and detained 12 others
during operations Monday in the north-eastern province of Kapisa and
south-eastern Paktika province, the US military said in a statement.
The operations targeted militants loyal to Hizb-e-Islami and Haqqani
networks, two groups associated with Taliban militants.
Taliban fighters killed four construction company workers in Musa
Qala district of southern Helmand province on Sunday, Afghan defence
ministry reported Tuesday.
The statement said that three other workers were wounded when the
militants opened fire as they were working on a construction site.
Taliban spokesmen did not comment on the incident.
More than 4,000 people - mostly insurgents - have been killed in
military engagements so far this year in Afghanistan, according to
figures provided by Afghan and international military sources.
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