Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Presidential Spokesman Aimal Faizi: Taliban are Involved in Behsud Invasion

Presidential Spokesman Aimal Faizi: Taliban are Involved in Behsud Invasion

KABUL - The presidential spokesman on Saturday has said that the Taliban and armed opposition are involved in invading Behsud and Daimerdad districts of Maidan Wardak province. According to Aimal Faizi, the Taliban, under the name of Kuchis, have launched attacks into Behsud and Daimerdad, killing innocent civilians, and looting and burning their properties.

About NATO aerial strike in Logar, Aimal added that the Unilateral airstrikes by American forces would be considered a violation of the Afghan-US strategic cooperation pact that was signed in late April, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday.

Aimal Faizi told journalists in Kabul that the US had not consulted Afghan forces on calling this week's air raid that killed 18 civilians in the Baraki Barak district of central Logar province.
"ISAF confirms that in addition to the insurgents killed during the operation, it's also responsible for the unintended, but nonetheless tragic, death of Afghan civilians," a statement from the alliance said.

Investigators who visited the site, as well as relatives of the victims, met Karzai earlier in the day, Faizi said, adding that Afghan forces were not taken into confidence on the operation.
"Local security personnel had fully ringed the house that was bombed by US troops," according to the presidential spokesman, who insisted the people inside had no escape route.

"Even after the joint force was attacked, Afghan security personnel could have conducted the operation successfully," he thought, regretting: "Unfortunately, a unilateral decision was taken and foreign troops carried out the raid."

If US soldiers had demonstrated patience and restraint, the civilian deaths could have been prevented, Faizi believed, saying the government had decided to ask the Americans once again to end willful operations and collateral damage.

In the future such raids would be deemed an act of naked aggression against Afghanistan, Karzai's aide warned, calling one-sided operations a major irritant in Afghan-US relations over the past decade.
He explained: "One chapter of the strategic deal with the US calls for an end to what happened in past years and full respect for Afghanistan's constitution and sovereignty by foreign forces." (Pajhwok)