Karzai: NATO bombs, terrorists kill kids

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061210/ap_on_re_as/afghan_karzai

Karzai: NATO bombs, terrorists kill kids

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer 33 minutes ago

KABUL, Afghanistan - With his lips quivering and voice breaking, a tearful President Hamid Karzai on Sunday lamented that Afghan children are being killed by NATO and U.S. bombs and by terrorists from Pakistan — a portrait of helplessness in the face of spiraling chaos.


In a heartfelt speech that brought audience members to tears, Karzai said the cruelty imposed on his people "is too much" and that
Afghanistan cannot stop "the coalition from killing our children."

"We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, and we can't prevent the coalition from bombing the terrorists, and our children are dying because of this," he said.

The president, who turned tearful after relating stories of children maimed by bombings, took long pauses between sentences and at one point covered both eyes with a white handkerchief.

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"We've the police reports that civilians were killed in the NATO airstrike. The governor has appointed a committee to establish the fact," he said.

Scores of civilians have been killed during operations by foreign troops against Taliban.

In October, ISAF admitted 12 civilians were killed in one of its airstrikes against Taliban insurgents in the southern province of Kandahar. Other sources put the civilian toll at between 60 to 85.

A government-appointed investigation committee established by President Hamid Karzai is yet to reveal the results of their search.

Over 1,000 civilians are also among some 3,700 people killed in the overall violence across Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest since the 2001 toppling of the Taliban by a US-led invasion, according to an official report.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2646607&mesg_id=2646607

The terrorists come because we are there. We need to get out now and stay out. Had we not put US troops on Saudi lands, 9/11 would never have happened. It's the reason Osama organized to come after us and the US refuses to admit our military being on Islamic holy land is second only to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land that makes the fanatics of the ME foment their terror against the west.

I think what he was trying to say is that our country — 30 years of war has made us so weak that we don't have the institutions to control these types of things," Ahmed said.

Afghanistan has seen more than 100 suicide attacks this year, a record number, and close to 4,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence.

On Sunday, insurgents ambushed NATO troops in southern Zabul province with a roadside bomb and gunfire, wounding two soldiers, said Capt. Andre Salloum, a spokesman for NATO's troops in the south.

A day earlier, a roadside bomb exploded next to an Afghan army vehicle in eastern Paktia province, killing all six soldiers on board, police said Sunday.

NATO, meanwhile, sharply reduced the number of Taliban militants it said were killed in fighting on Dec. 2 in the Musa Qala district of southern Helmand province. NATO officials originally said about 70-80 militants were killed, but revised the figure to about seven or eight, saying there could have been an internal reporting error.