UN head urges end to deaths

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Hundreds of Afghan civilians have died in attacks by the Taliban - but also in operations by U.S. and NATO forces fighting the insurgents, according to an account by The Associated Press.

Speaking alongside U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon - whose trip to Kabul was unannounced - Karzai said he has publicly complained over civilian casualties in order to pressure U.S.-led forces into changing their tactics.

Serious tensions
Karzai also said yesterday there were "serious tensions" in his relationship with Afghanistan's foreign allies and that they were pressuring him to stop complaining about civilian casualties, according to Agence France-Presse.

The strains emerged after incidents last year when U.S. troops killed Afghan civilians in bombing raids on insurgents, Karzai told reporters when asked about recent Western criticism of his administration.

"There are tensions in our relations over this. Especially after the Shinwar and Shindand incidents, our differences in opinions and tensions became serious," he said in a rare admission of problems with his partners.

Karzai, who will run for re-election in Aug. 20 presidential polls, said his Western allies were criticizing him as weak, through the media, to stop him from speaking about civilian losses and demanding that they end. "They pressure us to make us silent, to make us backtrack from our demand, but this is not possible," he said.