Afghan cabinet demands review of int'l troops
The Afghan cabinet demanded yesterday the renegotiation of agreements regulating the presence of the international community in Afghanistan after more than 90 civilians were killed in US-led air strikes.
The cabinet said the review should focus on the "limits of authority and responsibilities" of international troops and a halt on air strikes on civilians, illegal detentions and unilateral house searches, a statement said.
A government commission said Sunday that more than 90 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in air strikes in the western province of Herat on Friday.
It is one of the deadliest civilian tolls in international military action since US-led forces invaded in 2001 to topple the hardline Taliban regime after it did not hand over its al-Qaeda allies for attacks on the United States.
The US-led coalition says Friday's strikes were targeted at Taliban rebels and 30 of them were killed although it is investigating claims of civilian casualties.
The regular Monday cabinet meeting "expressed deep sorrow and condemned in the strongest possible terms" recent incidents of civilian casualties in Herat as well as the provinces of Laghman and Kapisa, the statement said.
A resolution adopted by the ministers said they had tasked the foreign and defence ministries to meet international officials in line with Afghanistan's "right of national sovereignty."
"The presence of the international community in Afghanistan must be re-regulated based on bilateral agreements," said the statement carried by the government news agency.
"The limits of authorities and responsibilities of the international forces must be regulated under bilateral agreements based on international and Afghan laws," it said.
"Air strikes on civilian targets, unilateral searches of homes and illegal detentions of Afghan civilians must be stopped," it added.
There are now nearly 70,000 international soldiers from around 40 countries in the country to fight a Taliban-led insurgency and help bring security.
About 53,000 are with a Nato-led International Security Assistance Force mandated by the United Nations with a resolution extended annually since 2003 that says it should assist the Afghan government maintain security.
The deal is due to be extended in October.
The remainder are with the US-led coalition, under the banner of Operation Enduring Freedom, which unseated the Taliban government seven years ago.
A May 2005 bilateral agreement between the United States and Afghanistan outlines the coalition's operations including conducting counter-terrorism operations, intelligence sharing and training the Afghan security forces.
There has been growing anger in Afghanistan about the number of civilians being killed in insurgency-linked violence.
The country's top rights group, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said last week that 900 civilians have been killed this year in attacks and international military action.
In another incident, an Afghan investigation found that around 50 civilians, most of them women, were killed in coalition air strikes early July when they had gathered for a wedding in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
The coalition has however not acknowledged killing any civilians, saying the strikes hit militants.
After the Nangarhar incident, Afghan senators demanded that international troops be brought under the country's law to make them accountable for mounting civilian casualties.
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