Afghan forces banned from calling in Nato air strikes
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Afghan President Hamir Karzai addresses Afghan National Army officers during a conference at the National Military Academy in Kabul on Saturday, Feb 16, 2013. Afghan ground forces will be barred from calling in Nato air strikes after an attack killed a number of children this week, Mr Karzai said on Saturday. -- PHOTO: AFP
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan ground forces will be barred from calling in Nato air strikes after an attack killed a number of children this week, President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday.
"I issue a decree, from tomorrow none of the Afghan forces are allowed to ask for foreign air support under any conditions," he said in an address to young officers at a military academy in Kabul.
"Our forces ask for air support from foreigners and children get killed in an air strike," he said.
This was apparently a reference to an attack during an overnight raid by combined Afghan and Nato ground forces on a Taleban hideout in a remote eastern region on Wednesday.
