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US wonŽt stop airstrikes despite Afghan anger
[Bangla Daily Star] The United States will not hamper its forces in Afghanistan by banning airstrikes but will redouble efforts to limit civilian casualties, National Security Advisor James Jones said yesterday."We can't fight with one hand tied behind our back," General Jones said on ABC, arguing that Afghan President Hamid Karzai "understands that we have to have the full complement of our offensive military power when we need it." "We're going to take a look at trying to make sure that we correct those things we can correct, but certainly to tie the hands of our commanders and say we're not going to conduct air strikes, it would be imprudent," he said. Karzai, who was in Washington last week, called for a halt to the airstrikes after alleging that one had killed up to 130 Afghan villagers including women and children. "That's part of the combined arms package and so we probably would not do that," Jones said of the strikes. "But we are going to take very seriously the (criticism) and redouble our efforts to make sure that innocent civilians are not killed." Posted by: Fred 2009-05-11 |
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