Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters at the conclusion of a two-day summit of the alliance leaders that the plan calls for handing over security responsibilities to Afghan forces in 2013, then withdrawing foreign forces the following year. After that, a new and different NATO mission will advise, train and assist the expected 350,000-strong Afghanistan force, Rasmussen said.

The plan is backed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who sat down Monday to speak exclusively with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“We have finalized plans so 2014 will be a year in which the United States will not be spending as much money in Afghanistan as it is spending today. It will save money and we will be providing security ourselves,” he said. “That transition and the eventual withdrawal in 2014 of the U.S. forces and other NATO forces from Afghanistan is good for Afghanistan and good for our allied countries.”

Obama said NATO leaders were leaving Chicago with “a clear road map” to bring the war in Afghanistan to a “responsible end.”

“I don’t think that there’s ever going to be an optimal point where we say — this is all done, this is perfect, this is just the way we wanted it and now we can wrap up all our equipment and go home. This is a process, and it’s sometimes a messy process, just as it was in Iraq,” he said.

The second day of their two-day summit focused on Afghanistan, with Karzai and the heads of other countries contributing to the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force also in attendance.

Why al-Assad shouldn’t worry about NATO

Obama wanted NATO to commit to long-range support for Afghanistan, and Rasmussen said the alliance would support Afghan forces after the combat mission ends.

“Today we reaffirmed our strong commitment to support their training, equipping, financing and capability development in the years to come,” Rasmussen said, adding it will be a “new mission with a new role for NATO,” not “ISAF with a different name.”

Rasmussen confirmed that some NATO members have agreed to contribute money for the $4 billion a year needed to help fund the Afghanistan security forces after the NATO mission ends, but said the summit was never intended to secure that funding.

While the Afghanistan force is expected to number 350,000 in 2014, Rasmussen said the size would likely decrease in future years depending on the security situation on the ground and other factors.

He also said he expected an agreement soon for Pakistan to reopen its border with Afghanistan to military shipments of departing NATO forces, which would resolve a sticky issue in planning the withdrawal of foreign forces.

“So far, the closure of the transit routes has not had a major impact on our operations,” Rasmussen said, but added the transit routes were very important and that he expected their reopening “in the very near future.”

Pakistan closed the ground routes after a NATO airstrike in November killed two dozen of its soldiers. NATO insists the incident was an accident. Obama offered his condolences but refused to apologize.

The United States and Pakistan have not come to an agreement on the price of reopening the supply lines, according to senior administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Without a deal, officials said Obama would not meet with President Asif Ali Zardari at the summit. However, Obama and Zardari had a brief conversation Monday morning on the sidelines of the NATO session.

Zakaria: NATO seeks relevance

The United States and Pakistan are making “diligent progress” on the question of reopening the supply routes, the U.S. president said.

“Ultimately it is in our interest to see a successful, stable Pakistan and it is in Pakistan’s interests to work with us and the world community to ensure that they themselves are not consumed by extremism that is in their midst,” Obama told reporters.

When asked about turning over security responsibility to Afghan forces next year, Rasmussen denied it was an acceleration of the transition, saying the plan all along was to withdraw troops in 2014 after shifting the lead security role to Afghan forces.

“It has been within our road map right from the outset,” he said.

Asked Monday by Blitzer whether Afghanistan will be ready by 2014 to assume full responsibility for the country’s security, Karzai responded: “Absolutely.”

“We’ve already worked out a plan to have in six months time 75% of the country taken over, with regard to security by the Afghan security forces ,” he said.

Outside the NATO meeting, protesters marched and rallied on Monday, a day after violent clashes with police.

Obama thanked the city’s mayor and its police force for their work, which he said was done under “significant pressure and a lot of scrutiny.”

“This is part of what NATO defends — is free speech and freedom of assembly,” he said.

Earlier Monday, Obama told the dozens of heads of state in attendance that the goal is to “responsibly bring this war to an end” in the next 19 months.

He cited a recent strategic partnership agreement he signed with Karzai as a step toward ensuring that “as Afghans stand up, they will not stand alone.”

Full coverage: NATO summit

Obama and Karzai, who met a day ahead of Monday’s NATO talks on Afghanistan, both agreed that the end of the war was close.

Following their meeting, Obama said the transition of the NATO-led force from a combat role to one of support of Afghan forces paints “a vision post-2014 in which we have ended our combat role, the Afghan war as we understand it is over.”

Karzai reiterated his commitment to the timetable, “so that Afghanistan is no longer a burden on the shoulder of our friends in the international community, on the shoulders of the United States and our other allies.

“Afghanistan, indeed, Mr. President, as you very rightly put it, is looking forward to an end to this war, and a transformational decade,” he said.

One of the veterans was Christopher Moberg who stated his  heavy missile artillery unit was allegedly responsible for over 5,000 indiscriminate civilian casualties.  These killing were supposedly later cover up by the army.  There were over 40 veterans participating in this ceremony of throwing away their medals.  During their speeches, many of the veterans showed clear signs of psychological distress.

After this event the police acted with brutal force.  According to many testimonies, no order for dispersal was given, when suddenly police arrived. Police attacked protesters, clubbing them across their heads. At least two protesters were badly injured.  By some reports, it looks like the police was ready to behave in this way regardless of how the protesters carry their action.

These are real American Heroes. If we have the courage and the heart to stand for what is right, please let’s join these brave soldiers who lived in their own flesh the nightmare of killing innocents under a fabricate lie of promoting “freedom and democracy”. THE PEOPLE UNITED WILL NO BE DEFEATED.

CHECK MY BOOK “CONFRONTATIONAL POETRY

George Washington said something on a subject similar to this… hmm what was it? Oh yes it went something like this  

“While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.”  George Washington (Farewell Adress, 1796).

George Washington (Photo credit: cliff1066™)

Well Good Sir, i would have to say as a lover of the Constitution, America, and being a Chicagoan that you are absolutely right. Right about what exactly? The entangling alliances such as the most recent NATO summit in Chicago. Yes, our very first president did not want to involve the nation in such a potentially dangerous alliance. Well before we start talking about NATO, let us explore it.

What is NATO? NATO, or North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a intergovernmental alliance that was created by the North Atlantic Treaty. This alliance is meant for all the countries involved to aid the others in case they were attacked. WAIT OH NO, BUT THAT IS A GOOD THING, IF AMERICA IS ATTACKED, WE TOO GET AID. WRONG. Now lets examine this closer with some historical background. In the events that lead to World War I, there were alliances on each side. Austria-Hungary had a alliance with Germany. While Serbia had a alliance with Russia, France and Britain. Now lets look at the events, The death of Franz Ferdinand and Austria retaliation would cause a domino effect. First two countries fight, now almost all of Europe is at War. 

What does this have to do with NATO? Well NATO is a entangling alliance. If any one of the MANY (28 to be exact) countries involved in this alliance. So if the Soviets, or Chinese, or North Koreans, or any other daring nation attacks even one of the 28 countries. America has to get involved. Some of these countries probably have a ineffective military when compared to any possible threats the other armies have. 

I am a person who lives in Chicago and i have seen the protests. It amazes me to see all the people that are here that do not want NATO to exist. There have been several more physical protests but nothing worth mentioning. There have been apparently cases of police brutality and most of the police force in ALL of Chicago is there to make sure no riots break out. So far nothing is life threatening. I hope we disband NATO as a all out war involving that many countries will only lead to a lot of unnecessary blood shed. 

North Atlantic Treaty Organization in orthographic projection. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) 

CHICAGO – The planned talks between the leaders of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, was canceled at the last minute. Cancellations made after the departure of President of Pakistan plane was delayed.

“The cancellation was due to the problems cited,” said NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero, on Saturday. “Zardari delayed flight departures. That means that the talks with NATO Secretary-General could not go as planned.”

Romero was able to add a bilateral meeting between the two leaders before the summit ends on Monday (21/5). Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is scheduled to attend the NATO summit in Chicago on 25 May 20 to 21 Asif is present in the invitation to Rasmussen.

In Chicago, the president addressed the meeting dijawalkan Pakistan, ISAF (International Security Assistance in Pakistan). Asif will also meet with other heads of State and Government in the framework of a NATO conference. Planned to be accompanied, among others, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar.

The rocket attack in Afghanistan kills two NATO soldiers, “Two ISAF soldiers were killed and six others wounded in a Taliban rocket attack on an ISAF base in the Nari district today,” said a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Two other local officials confirmed that, while the press office of ISAF in Kabul said the “two soldiers were killed after insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan”.

HERAT, Afghanistan–Spanish Army soldiers load the remains of a soldier killed onto an aircraft headed for Spain, Nov. 10, 2008. The soldier died during a vehicle borne improvised explosive device attack near Shindand in western Afghanistan. The soldiers were performing an International Security Assistance Force mission at the time of their death. (ISAF Photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Laura K. Smith)(released) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The attack came a day after gunmen wearing police uniforms and suicide vests stormed a government compound in Farah Province, southwestern Afghanistan, killing seven people and wounded 12 others.

Earlier this month announced the launch of the Taliban spring offensive, an operation carried out bombings and violence every year when the weather improves.

Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan since 1996, fueling insurgency since ousted from power in that country by US-led invasion in 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is allegedly responsible for attacks on American soil that killed about 3,000 people on 11 September of 2001.

Used by NATO tankers in Karachi.

While both sides haggle over by the amount, but it may soon come to an agreement. As an indication of this is also true that Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari may now sit on Sunday and Monday but at the NATO Summit in Chicago at the table.

Series of incidents

Several incidents had led the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan in a serious crisis: In February 2011, was a U.S. secret agent two Pakistanis in Lahore shot dead in broad daylight. In May 2011 it had U.S. special forces – supposedly without any knowledge of Pakistan – Osama bin Laden tracked down and killed in Abbottabad. As on 26 November U.S. attack helicopters also bombed a border post and killed 24 soldiers blocked the supply routes through Pakistan, Islamabad. NATO had to avoid routes through Central Asia to supply the troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan pounded first for an official apology, but they refused to Washington. Meanwhile backpedaled Islamabad. Pakistan, too, knows that it meets with the NATO blockade of the entire front of the head and internationally isolated.

Česky: Vlajka Severoatlantické aliance (NATO). English: Flag of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Español: Bandera de la Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte (OTAN). Polski: Flaga Paktu Północnoatlantyckiego (NATO). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Chicago summit, NATO leaders are expected to try to unify the military resources more efficiently and integrate multi-national defense structure, a concept known as “smart defense.”
 
NATO senior officials will also discuss the concept of partnership with countries such as non-NATO Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Korea, Ireland, Sweden and Finland.
 
NATO expert Sean Kay of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, says there are other important partnerships.
 
“The dynamics of NATO and EU relations. Because in the end, when you think about the challenge or the greatest threat to the current NATO members, obviously not military. There is no conventional military threat against those countries. However, the most important threat is the economy. “Says Kay.
 
When talking about the crisis in the eurozone, said Sean Kay, would return to trouble the defense budget.
 
As for the Balkans, a number of countries in the region – such as Macedonian, Montenegro and Bosnia – aspired to be a member of NATO. However, experts say NATO summit this time will not discuss the accretion members and will not invite new countries to become members of NATO.

NATO Asked to Investigate the Death of Civilians Libya, Human Rights Watch believes that NATO air strikes killed at least 72 civilians and stated that the organization should be responsible.

“We call for an investigation into a fast, reliable and thorough,” said Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch told BBC News.

NATO insisted on making efforts to minimize the impact of civil society.

They also claim can not be responsible because no one can confirm the number of deaths.

NATO aircraft made a surprise raid last year, with the goal of troops loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Last March, another human rights organization, Amnesty International, said it had record number of victims killed in airstrikes that 55 people, including 16 children and 14 women.

Amnesty expressed disappointment because of NATO’s failure to investigate the case.

The bottom line campaign by NATO air strikes on Libya last year was to protect the civilian population, so how many number of people killed is still a sensitive issue, such as the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent reports, Bridget Kendall.

Details of the evidence

In a report published Monday (14/05/2012), HRW said it had studied the details of the evidence that claims of civilian deaths in eight separate air strikes carried out NATO.

One case, the first thing mentioned NATO bombing killed 14 people, and the second bomb, shortly afterwards, killing another 18 people who were helping the victims earlier.

Abrahams stressed that concerns the authors of the report was not offered the family compensation.

“Until now, NATO is still denying it,” he said.

“They refused to provide information about how they died and refused to investigate, and there is no transparency”.

“I think this will make the civilian deaths are useless, because if in the future of NATO refused to admit their mistakes and fix them”.

NATO says ready to cooperate with the new Libyan authorities.

The man who turned his gun on Green Beret Andrew Britton-Mihalo of Simi Valley was also part of an elite corps. The tragedy is part of a worrisome trend in Afghanistan.

In many ways, the two young soldiers were not so different from each other.

Each was tough-minded and physically powerful. Each worked hard to win a place in an elite military unit, and spoke with pride of serving his country.

They were 25 years old, these two: one newly married, the other planning a wedding this year. Their upbringings were as disparate as their homelands were distant, but religious faith was entwined with the family lives of both.

Their lives ended, violently and nearly simultaneously, one evening late last month at a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan — one dead at the other’s hands.

An Afghan Special Forces sergeant named Zakirullah has been identified by his commanders as the man who shot and killed U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Trevor Britton-Mihalo, a Green Beret from Simi Valley, before being gunned down himself.

“We had thought he might die while he was serving in the army,” said an uncle of Zakirullah, who, like many Afghans, used one name. “But we never thought it would happen like this.”

—

At the fatal intersection of these two young lives, American and Afghan, lies the heartbreaks of the Western presence in this country, and the many ways in which two ostensible allies have both buoyed and failed each other.

As the U.S. military embarks on the task of extracting itself from America’s longest war, the phenomenon of members of the Afghan security forces turning their guns on Western troops is becoming, in the eyes of some commanders, a strategic threat.

At least 21 NATO troops have died in these assaults this year, accounting for a stunning 14% of troop deaths, with the latest shooting coming Friday in northeastern Afghanistan, the victim an American. The total number of such attacks is unknown; they generally go unreported publicly by the military if they result in injuries only.

Although all have a corrosive effect on field morale and trust, the April 25 confrontation that killed Britton-Mihalo was cause for particular alarm: For the first time, the killer was a member of Afghanistan’s special forces, handpicked from the ranks of its commandos, who are themselves considered an exclusive fraternity: carefully vetted, highly trained, closely watched.

With the NATO force preparing to end its combat role in Afghanistan, heavily freighted hopes are riding on the U.S.-mentored Afghan special forces.

They are being groomed to take the lead in nighttime raids, which have proved to be perhaps the single most effective tool in killing and capturing leaders of the Taliban and other insurgent groups. More than three dozen teams of Afghan special forces are spread across the country, partnered with U.S. counterparts in “village stability” operations meant to win the support of residents in isolated hamlets menaced by the Taliban.

In outposts like the makeshift base in Kandahar province where Zakirullah and Britton-Mihalo were deployed, the punishingly primitive, close-quarters conditions can foster strong bonds — or allow small irritants to fester.

“They work together, they patrol together, they are together all day of every day,” said Col. Bismullah Waziri, executive officer of the Afghan commando brigade. “We are all aware that there are cultural issues. Sure, they are different from us. And we are different from them.”

—

Britton-Mihalo’s military roots ran deep.

His dad was a Marine; Andrew was born in Costa Rica while his father was serving there. In December, he married Jesse Lamorte, an Army combat photographer who had served in Afghanistan with a special operations unit. He had proposed to her stateside, at a Special Forces winter ball. Two of his half brothers recently enlisted, and Britton-Mihalo had signed up for a third tour in Afghanistan.

From the beginning, his career aim was soldiering. He signed on with the Army in 2005, right after graduating from Royal High School in Simi Valley. Nobody who knew him was surprised when he made it into the elite Green Berets in 2008.

“He was something special when it came to dedication and endurance,” said Paul Mole, one of his wrestling coaches in Simi Valley, where a 5-year-old Andrew had moved after his parents split up and his mother remarried.

Mole, who now teaches at Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colo., keeps a photo on his classroom wall: It’s the Royal team that won the school’s first wrestling championship, a squad whose standout was the boy then known as Andrew Mihalo. (He adopted the hyphenated name later, combining the surnames of his biological father and his stepfather.)

The young wrestler was known for his ability to withstand pain. When his shoulder was dislocated during a match and his coaches couldn’t work it back into place, he dove onto the mat to pop it back in. He went on to win the match.

By the time of the championship bout, the 144-pound senior’s injuries had raised doubt about his ability to keep going. Early on, his opponent took him down, but as a crowd chanted, “An-DREW! An-DREW!” he managed to turn the tables, get the decisive pin, and bring home the wrestling title.

“He was so happy, he was just a ball of emotion,” recalled Rich Carrillo, Royal’s current head coach.

“He couldn’t stop crying. I put my arm around him and said: ‘From here on, your life will never be the same. You’re a hero.’ I never realized just how much of a hero he would become.”

–

As a youth, Zakirullah didn’t bear the hallmarks of a hometown hero.

Born into a typically large family in the impoverished Pashtun farming hamlet of Wazir Tatang in Nangarhar province, near the Pakistani border, he spent some of his teenage years working as a mechanic and driver while other brothers went off to university.

Though close to his family as a boy, playing and tussling with his brothers in the dry riverbed where their village lies, he became estranged from the clan in his late teens. Five years ago, he left without telling anyone and joined the army, said an uncle, Haji Naamdaar.

Military life, it turned out, seemed to suit him. After a few years, he made the cut to become a commando. And from there, he advanced to an even more severe test: a special forces battalion. Along the way, he was promoted to sergeant. He returned to the family fold, becoming engaged to a cousin in a match arranged by tribal elders.

For Afghan troops, commando and special forces training is modeled in part on the grueling winnowing process for celebrated U.S. special operations forces such as the Green Berets. Not only is physical endurance required, psychological resilience is considered a key attribute.

“Sometimes, even if they are doing something correctly, we shout at them and criticize them for doing it wrong, to see how they handle it,” said Bismullah, the colonel. “If they crack, they’re out.”

—

Why Zakirullah pulled his gun on a comrade will probably never be known.

The shooting erupted about 8 p.m. on the base, in an abandoned residential compound in the remote village of Kajoor. After Zakirullah shot Britton-Mihalo, the slain American’s fellow Green Berets returned fire, killing him instantly.

A military investigating panel, made up of Americans and Afghans, has returned from the scene but has not yet submitted its findings, and no date has been set for the inquiry’s completion. Members of Zakirullah’s team, just a month into a three-month posting in Kandahar province, has been pulled back to Kabul, the capital, for questioning and more training.

After the shooting, the Taliban claimed that the attack had been carried out at the group’s behest, specifically mentioning Zakirullah by name. Although the group could easily have learned his identity after the fact, investigators are looking at whether he could have had some link to the insurgents.

Although nearly all Afghan soldiers are observant Muslims, displays of intense religious fervor can sometimes attract attention. Zakirullah “prayed five times a day like anyone, but there was nothing unusual there,” said Col. Nabiullah Merzaee, the deputy commander of the commando center where he trained.

NATO officials say “insider” shootings are often triggered by something more mundane than religious sentiment or insurgent sympathies. A grudge, a quarrel, an affront: All can be extremely serious matters in the Pashtun culture in which Zakirullah was reared, sometimes even when the actual disagreement appears trivial.

Naamdaar said that although he remembered his nephew as a generally easygoing boy, his temper occasionally flared if he felt he was being treated with disrespect.

To his sister Michelle Carranza, a mother of four in Simi Valley, Britton-Mihalo was a “normal, average brother — a goofball who teased us.

He loved animals. He kept snakes in his room as a boy, and always had a dog.

He was active in his family’s Mormon church. For his Eagle Scout project, he built a wheelchair ramp at the local cemetery.

In his senior year of high school, his mother moved to Missouri, and Andrew was allowed to stay behind with his best friend’s family.

“Some of my greatest memories of Andrew were sitting up till 4 a.m. in his pitch-black room, lying on his floor, solving all of the problems of the world like only brothers could,” wrote the friend, T.J. Mathias, in a Facebook tribute. “We would discuss politics, school, girls, life, movies, music, cars … absolutely whatever came to mind.”

His death at the hands of an Afghan ally is no more or less devastating than it would have been otherwise, said some who knew him.

“He was the world to me,” Carranza said. “I don’t know what was in the heart of the man who killed my brother. I don’t know what he was seeking. Those are things I’m going to leave to a higher power. If I dwell on it, I let it take over.”

–

More than 700 people have joined a Facebook page Britton-Mihalo’s friends started in his memory, posting photos of a trip Andrew took to Disneyland, reminiscences of his school days, Ronald Reagan quotes about freedom, shots of fun times with the woman now known as Sgt. Jesse Britton.

At his old school, students observed a moment of silence to mark his death.

“In high school, we create a bubble; we try to keep them young and carefree for a few years,” said Principal Deborah Salgado. “Then we send them out into an overly serious world.”

In accordance with his family’s wishes, Andrew Britton-Mihalo is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on May 25. Thirty days later, he would have celebrated his 26th birthday.

Back in Afghanistan, hundreds of mourners trekked from nearby villages for Zakirullah’s funeral six days after his death. Wails rang out as he was carried to a forlorn-looking cemetery less than a mile from the family home, but there was little talk of his final act. Some of those in attendance did not know how he died; others clearly felt the circumstances were best buried with him.

It had fallen to Haji Naamdaar to identify and claim Zakirullah’s corpse. In the chill of the morgue, the body lay swathed, grievous wounds hidden. All Naamdaar could see was Zakirullah’s face. Gazing down at it, he saw neither rage nor fear written on the features of his young nephew.

“I thought he might look different,” he said. “But he looked only like himself.”

Afghan, ISAF forces reopen school in Zabul (Photo credit: isafmedia)

Andrew (Photo credit: bredgur)

Dive casualties, Karzai Threatens U.S., Dozens of residents, including women and children-were killed in the bombing of NATO alliance in the four provinces since Saturday, Karzai’s office said in a statement.

President warned that if the lives of the people of Afghanistan are not protected, the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed with U.S. President Barack Obama last week, will lose their meaning, the statement said.

“The President of Afghanistan on the eve of NATO commander is calling Gen. John Allen and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the United States to conduct an emergency meeting at the presidential palace,” said the president’s office.

He expressed concern about casualties among the people in four provinces, namely Logar and Helmand in the south, east and Kapisa Badghis in the northwest.

President’s claim victims among the people always hurt the United States-Afghanistan relations, adding that Afghanistan has signed a strategic agreement with the United States to prevent the incident and keep the lives of Afghans.

“If the lives of citizens of Afghanistan are not protected, the strategic partnership that will lose their meaning,” the statement said quoting the president.

The agreement covers the relationship between the two countries at the NATO-led forces, which helped the Taliban insurgency fighting Karzai’s government, drawn in 2014.

After the meeting, Allen states accept personal responsibility for what happened when people were killed and expressed condolences to the families concerned, the spokesman said International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told AFP news agency Prancisd.

“He said he would fully investigate the incident and report back to President Karzai,” the spokesman said, “We do not have any evidence at this time.”

NATO-led air strikes targeting militants in the United States on Saturday night and Badghis province killed 15 people, including women and children in the village Joikar, Bala Murghab district, said a member of provincial parliament, Qazi Abdul Rahim, told AFP.

ISAF spokesman ahead of a meeting with Karzai said airstrikes killed three militants in a raid in the area, but the report shows no residents involved.

In a separate incident, in the restive Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, on Friday, six people were killed by NATO airstrikes, Afghan officials said. “The six-woman, two boys and three girls, were killed by air attack foreign troops on Friday in Sangin district,” provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP.

ISAF claimed to know the allegations and investigation “is ongoing”.

Casualties among the people has always been a sensitive issue in the U.S. led war against Taliban insurgents and a frequent cause of strained relations between Kabul and Washington.

The number of people killed increased each year in the last five years, reaching 3021 in 2011, with most caused by insurgents, according to United Nations figures.