President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday there were "serious tensions" in his relationship with Afghanistan's foreign allies and that they were pressuring him to stop complaining about civilian casualties. The strains emerged after incidents last year when US 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 August 20 presidential polls, said his Western allies were criticising 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.
The president said he had for years been asking the troops to stop bombing raids that killed civilians. But "every time we mentioned this, they started attacking us through the media and this continued," he said.
The president has in recent months stepped up criticism of international military raids on Taliban and other insurgents that kill civilians, saying the mounting toll endangers public support. Karzai emphasised, however, that Afghanistan's relations with the United States - the main provider of troops and aid to his country - were strong. "We want to continue our relations with America. We are partners in war against terrorism," he said.