Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a recent visit, said on Sunday he was "stunned" at Karzai's comments to a Washington newspaper, which appeared at odds with US military strategy.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Karzai said he wants the US military to scale back the visibility and intensity of its operations in Afghanistan and end night raids that he said incited people to join the Taliban insurgency.
Karzai's comments put him at odds with US General David Petraeus, who has made "capture-and-kill" missions a central part of counterinsurgency strategy, the Post said.
"I'm just stunned. We had a great meeting," Graham, part of a visiting congressional delegation that had dinner with Karzai, said on ABC's "This Week."
"We were briefed by our military commanders that the night raids ... are making a huge impact on the Taliban," said Graham, adding: "This didn't come up at all" in discussions with Karzai.