Karzai Accuses Pakistan of Directly Supporting Taleban Insurgents
13 December 2006
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused Pakistan's government of directly supporting Taleban insurgents in Afghanistan.
Mr. Karzai spoke Tuesday during a rare visit to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a former Taleban stronghold.
He said Afghanistan's problem is not with the Taleban, but with Pakistan. Mr. Karzai accused Pakistani "state elements" of creating and sustaining the Taleban movement.
Pakistani leaders have repeatedly denied accusations that they are responsible for Afghanistan's insurgency.
Mr. Karzai was in Kandahar for talks with Western diplomats, NATO commanders on avoiding Afghan civilian casualties during military operations.
Two Afghan civilians were killed Tuesday in separate incidents involving foreign troops.
In one incident in Kandahar city, NATO says its forces fired a warning shot at a civilian motorcyclist who approached a checkpoint at high speed. NATO says the shot richoted and killed the motorcyclist.
In the other incident, NATO says U.S. and Afghan forces killed four militants and a teenage girl during a raid in the eastern province of Khost.
NATO says it regrets killing civilians and will investigate their deaths.
Elsewhere, a suicide bomber killed eight people Tuesday at the governor's compound in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.
The bomber triggered explosion in the compound's parking lot as he was being searched by police. Officials say the blast killed a district chief, six policemen and a civilian, but Helmand's governor, Mohammed Daud, was unharmed.
In the same province, a British Marine was killed in a battle with insurgents Tuesday.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
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