The Afghan government has sent NATO headquarters a draft agreement that would give Afghanistan more control over future NATO deployments in the country — including the positioning of some US troops, officials said.
The draft technical agreement would establish rules of conduct for NATO-led troops in Afghanistan and require that additional NATO troops and their location be approved by the Afghan government.
The agreement — an attempt by Afghanistan to gain more control over international military operation — would also prohibit NATO troops from conducting any searches of Afghan homes, a copy of the draft said..
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met US General David Petraeus on Tuesday and discussed how to prevent civilian deaths and the role of Afghan forces in US missions, told legislators that his government sent the draft agreement to NATO about two weeks ago.
As the head of US Central Command, Petraeus oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Addressing parliament at its opening session, a frustrated Karzai said the US and other Western military allies have not heeded his calls to stop airstrikes in civilian areas in Afghanistan.
He warned that the fight against militants cannot be won without popular support from Afghans.
The Afghan president urged the US and NATO to follow a new military strategy in Afghanistan that would increase cooperation with Afghan forces and officials to prevent the killing and maiming of civilians.
“We will not accept civilian casualties on our soil during the fight against terrorism and we cannot tolerate it,” Karzai told parliament.
US and NATO-led troops say that militants deliberately use civilians as human shields in their fight against foreign and Afghan troops, and there have been numerous disputes over whether some of those killed in operations were civilians or militants.
NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the letter from the Afghan government has been shared with NATO countries, but no discussions about it have yet taken place.
“The bottom line here is we are very much willing to engage in discussion to see how we can, in cooperation with them [Afghan authorities], improve how we do business,” Appathurai said.
The draft technical agreement calls for the deployment of additional NATO troops and their location carried out only with Afghan government approval; full coordination between Afghan and NATO defense authorities “at the highest possible level for all phases of military and ground operations”; and house searches and detention operations to be carried out only by Afghan security forces.
If approved, the agreement would apply to all 48,000 NATO-led forces who operate under the International Security Assistance Force, including some 17,000 Americans.
It was not clear if the agreement would apply to the separate US coalition and its 15,000 US troops, US spokesman Colonel Greg Julian said.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
NOTORIOUS JAIL: Even from a distance, prisoners maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger, could be distinguished Armed men broke the bolts on the cell and the prisoners crept out: haggard, bewildered and scarcely believing that their years of torment in Syria’s most brutal jail were over. “What has happened?” asked one prisoner after another. “You are free, come out. It is over,” cried the voice of a man filming them on his telephone. “Bashar has gone. We have crushed him.” The dramatic liberation of Saydnaya prison came hours after rebels took the nearby capital, Damascus, having sent former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fleeing after more than 13 years of civil war. In the video, dozens of
RSS