Karzai vows to regulate troops in Afghanistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has set out his election manifesto, vowing to make foreign troops sign a framework governing how they operate. The move is aimed at cutting the number of civilian casualties caused by U.S. and NATO operations, particularly air strikes. They have become a source of increasing outrage among ordinary Afghans and their leaders this year, even as insurgent violence has reached some of its worst levels during the eight-year-old war. Karzai has been widely criticised for withdrawing from a televised debate a night earlier with two of his main rivals. "We need to make an agreement to put the movements of foreign troops into a legitimate Afghan framework," Karzai told a campaign gathering in Kabul. "NATO and America are our allies in the war against terrorism but we also want protection, honour, dignity and respect of our religion from our friends," he said. General Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, issued a new tactical directive this month stressing the importance of avoiding civilian casualties and limiting air strikes against residential compounds. The protection of ordinary Afghans is now the centrepiece of a new counter-insurgency strategy. McChrystal's directive was issued as thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops were engaged in major offensives in southern Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province and a Taliban stronghold.

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ITN | July 24, 2009

Tags:. .helmand. .stronghold. .manifesto. .centrepiece. .televised