Afghan president again demands an end to US airstrikes, says it’s condition for security deal

KABUL – Afghanistan’s president says the U.S. can no longer carry out military operations or airstrikes and must jump-start peace talks with the Taliban before his country signs a security deal to keep American troops in Afghanistan after 2014.

Hamid Karzai made the statement Sunday after being presented with the findings of an investigation into a joint Afghan-U.S. military operation last week that resulted in civilian casualties which he blamed on U.S. soldiers.

The U.S.-led international military coalition, however, provided a sharply different account of what happened during the two-day operation against insurgents in eastern Parwan province, saying it was an Afghan-led effort and carried out at the request of the government.

Although Karzai has set out similar conditions in the past, he has intensified his anti-American rhetoric in recent weeks.