Afghan leader vows punishment for deadly US raid

Is the United States’ relationship with Afghanistan on the rocks?

That nation’s president, Hamid Karzai, is reported to be furious over the rising number of Afghani citizens being killed as a result of US and NATO military operations. The situation came to a head following a deadly air raid on the Afghani village of Azizabad late last month that left up to 90 civilians dead (the US military disputes this figure).

Now Karzai is promising to punish those responsible for killing Afghani civilians. Karzai said in a statement that “our relationship with foreigners got worse” after the raid. He also told an assembly of villagers outside Azizabad that he has been trying for five years to reduce the number of civilian casualties caused by coalition operations in the country.

It will be difficult for Karzai to follow through on his promise though if it involves punishing US troops. As with other countries where the United States military operates, we have a “Status of Force” agreement with Afghanistan, that essentially gives US troops immunity from prosecution under local laws (the logic behind the agreements is that if the US troops didn’t have immunity then they could become the target for politically-motivated prosecutions). So the only way to prosecute military personnel involved in the Azizabad operation would be if the US military decided that there had been some gross misconduct in their action that deserved of a court marshal.

The United States though disputes the number of people killed in Azizabad, and contends that the Taliban (and their supporters) regularly inflate casualty reports after coalition operations in an effort to turn the local population against the Western forces. A US report released on Tuesday said that a joint US/Afghan force came under attack outside Azizabad, and acted in self-defense. They claim that only seven civilians were killed in the fighting along with 30 or 35 militants. It doesn’t seem like a court marshal is in the future over this raid.

Karzai is now saying that he will review the rules that the US and NATO forces operate under, and that he wants to update the status of forces agreements. That’s unlikely to happen, so you have to wonder what Karzai’s next move will be.