Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused the United States on Friday of failing to cooperate over a massacre of 16 Afghans blamed on an American sergeant, raising public tensions between the two countries.
His comments underscored deep Afghan anger over the shootings, one day after he said international forces should leave villages, potentially jeopardising NATO operations two years before combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan.
“The Afghan government didn’t receive cooperation from the US regarding the surrender of the US soldiers to the Afghan government. This (civilian casualties) has been going on for too long,” Karzai told reporters.
“This is by all means the end of the rope here,” added Karzai, who has long called for an end to US raids on Afghan homes and who came under pressure Friday from relatives to take corrective action.
“This behavior can’t be tolerated. We have not asked for money. We ask for justice rather than compensation,” he added. Afghan leaders demanded that the suspect face a public trial in Afghanistan over the killings – mainly of women and children – in the southern province of Kandahar as villagers slept before dawn on Sunday. But the 38-year-old decorated soldier was instead flown to Kuwait this week, a first step towards being charged and put on trial abroad.
