Karzai Says Afghan Army Will Need Help Until 2024
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: December 8, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — In the latest sign of the enduring financial costs of the Afghan war for the United States and other NATO countries, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that Afghanistan would not be able to pay for its own security until at least 2024.
Mr. Karzai’s comments underscored his government’s long-term dependence on American and NATO funding just hours after as many as a dozen people were killed during an American raid in Laghman Province east of Kabul, Afghan officials said, prompting hundreds of villagers to march in protest.
The early morning operation outside the provincial capital of Mehtar Lam happened “without any coordination with the Afghan forces or Afghan officials,” said Sayed Ahmed Safi, a spokesman for the governor of Laghman.
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NATO confirmed the raid and said seven militants were killed but said there were no “reports to substantiate those claims of harming civilians, including women and children.” The raid targeted a Taliban bomb maker. A military spokesman said he did not know whether the troops involved were American or from another NATO country.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/world/asia/09gates.ht...
