KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - In demanding that the U.S.-led coalition stop all airstrikes on Afghan homes, President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday drew his government closer than ever to direct opposition to the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, a position that could complicate President Obama's looming decision on how quickly to withdraw troops.
Even for Western officials accustomed to Karzai's rebukes, his latest remarks were cause for deep concern, as they went further than before in calling for radical change in how NATO fights its war.
Tuesday's demand followed his earlier insistence that foreign forces end night raids, stop unilateral operations and stay out of Afghan villages. With each call, Karzai has outlined in ever starker lines a vision of a vastly less aggressive American military posture against the Taliban. The stance is particularly risky for him politically as his government relies on NATO for its survival.
"I warn NATO forces that a repeat of airstrikes on the houses of Afghanistan's people will not be allowed," Karzai said at a news conference at the presidential palace. "The people of Afghanistan will not allow this to happen anymore, and there is no excuse for such strikes."
He added that foreign forces are close to "the behavior of an occupation" and the "Afghan people know how to deal with that" -- a thinly veiled threat that Afghans could rise up against NATO forces and drive them out like past occupying armies. He said Afghanistan would be "forced to take unilateral action" if the bombardment of Afghan homes did not cease, although he did not specify what that action would be.
His criticism strikes at a central weapon for U.S. military planners: Airstrikes have surged during the past year and numbered nearly 300 in April.
The immediate provocation for Karzai's remarks was a U.S. military airstrike in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province that killed at least nine civilians, including children. But Karzai's statement also was the culmination of years of complaints about civilian casualties and aggressive NATO military operations.
U.S. Rear Adm. Vic Beck, a spokesman for the coalition, issued a conciliatory statement. He said that Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in Afghanistan, "has repeatedly noted that every liberation force has to be very conscious that it can, over time, become seen as an occupation force,"
