U.S. Rift With Karzai Grows After Civilian Deaths

The Afghan president has rejected U.S. apologies for killing nine boys in helicopter attack last Tuesday.

Apology not accepted. In a private telephone conversation with General David Petraeus Sunday, Hamid Karzai said that civilian deaths were the main cause of tensions between Afghanistan and the U.S. and that the military’s contrition was insufficient to ease the Afghan people’s pain. Last Tuesday nine boys in Kunar province were killed by NATO helicopters after they were mistaken for insurgents, and in February Kunar Governor Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi said 64 civilians in the region died over several days as a result of a NATO offensive. The tense exchange between Karzai and Petraeus is the latest sign of strain in the U.S. relationship with the Afghan president, whom Washington has accused of fostering corruption in his country.