U.S. commander apologizes for drone strike that killed Afghan civilians

Photo by Reuters/U.S. Air Force/Lt Col Leslie Pratt/Handout

The American military commander behind one, maybe two NATO drone strikes on Thursday that killed a child and wounded two women in the southern Helmand Province of Afghanistan, apologized to President Hamid Karzai, according to a coalition official on Friday.

Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, made a phone call to Karzai on Thursday after the president’s criticism of the attacks became public.

“This attack shows that American forces do not respect the lives and security of the people of Afghanistan and the loya jirga decision,” Mr. Karzai said in a statement posted on the president’s website. “For years, our people are being killed and their houses are being destroyed under the pretext of the war on terror.”

The apology could ease tensions between the two countries, who are at standstill on the security pact. Karzai refuses to sign the pact, and U.S. government subsequently threatened to withdraw American and NATO forces at the end of the next year.