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| Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, May 4, 2013. Karzai says the director of the CIA assured him that regular funding his government receives from the agency will not be cut off. He says Afghanistan has been receiving such funding for more than 10 years and expressed hope at a Saturday news conference that it will not stop. |
KABUL,
Afghanistan (AP) -- Seven U.S. soldiers and a member of the NATO-led
coalition were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest days for
Americans and other foreign troops in Afghanistan in recent months, as
the Taliban continued attacks as part of their spring offensive.
The
renewed violence came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged at a
news conference that
regular payments his government has received from
the CIA for more than a decade would continue. Karzai also said that
talks on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral security agreement to govern future
American military presence in the country had been delayed because of
conditions the Afghans were placing on the deal.
The
U.S.-led coalition reported that five international troops were killed
by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, and coalition spokesman
Capt. Luca Carniel confirmed that all five were American.
The
coalition did not disclose the location of the roadside bombing.
However, Javeed Faisal, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar
province, said the coalition patrol hit the bomb in the Maiwand district
of the province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.
Later,
the coalition reported that a soldier with the Afghan National Army
turned his weapon on coalition troops in the west, killing two in the
most recent of so-called insider attacks. Such attacks by members of the
Afghan security forces against their fellow colleagues or international
troops have eroded confidence in the Afghan forces as they work to take
over from foreign forces.
Both killed were
American, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of
anonymity to disclose the nationalities ahead of an official
announcement.
Another coalition service member
was killed in an insurgent attack in northern Afghanistan, the NATO-led
force said. It did not provide any further details of the incident.
It was the fourth time since last summer that seven Americans have been killed on a single day in the war.
On
March 12, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed outside Kandahar, killing
five U.S. troops. Two more U.S.
troops were killed that day by an
insider attack.
And on April 6, Afghan
militants killed six Americans, including a young female diplomat, and
an Afghan doctor in a pair of attacks in southern Afghanistan. The three
U.S. service members, two U.S. civilians and the doctor were killed
when the group was struck by an explosion while traveling to donate
books to a school. A seventh American, a civilian, was killed in a
separate insurgent attack in the east.
On Aug.
16, 2012, seven American service members were killed in two attacks in
Kandahar province. Six were killed when their helicopter was shot down
by insurgents and one soldier died in a roadside bomb explosion.
At
the news conference, Karzai said he had met earlier in the day with the
Kabul station chief of the CIA and was reassured that the agency's
payments to the Afghan government would continue. The New York Times had
reported that for more than a decade, the CIA had given the Afghan
National Security Council tens of millions of dollars in monthly
payments delivered in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags.
Karzai
said he told the station chief: "`Because of all these rumors in the
media, please do not cut all this money because we really need it. We
want to continue this sort of assistance.' And he promised that they are
not going to cut this money."
Karzai
described the payments as a form of "government-to-government"
assistance, and while he wouldn't say how much the CIA gave to the
National Directorate of Security, which is the Afghan intelligence
service, he said the financial help was very useful. He claimed that
much of the money was used to care for wounded employees of the NDS,
Afghanistan's intelligence service, and operational expenses.
"We have spent it in different areas (and) solved lots of our problems," Karzai said.
He
said the CIA payments were made in cash and that "all the money which
we have spent, receipts have been sent back to the intelligence service
of the United States monthly."
The CIA declined to comment on Saturday.
During
the news conference at the presidential palace, Karzai also discussed
ongoing negotiations on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral security agreement. He
said talks had been delayed because of certain conditions that
Afghanistan was insisting be included in the pact, which will govern a
U.S. military presence after 2014 when nearly all foreign combat troops
are to have finished their withdrawal from Afghanistan. The talks, which
started in late 2012, are set to last up to a year.
President
Barack Obama has not said how many troops will remain, although there
have been estimates ranging from 8,000 to 12,000. It is unlikely such an
announcement will be made until the security agreement is signed. Those
troops would help train Afghan forces and also carry out operations
against al-Qaida and other militant groups.
Karzai
said Afghanistan was ready to sign a deal as long as the American
government in exchange for being able to stay on bases in the country
agrees to terms of Afghan security, funding assistance and help with
training and equipping Afghan security forces. It is thought that the
contentious issue of providing U.S. troops immunity from Afghan law is a
low priority for the Afghan government in the negotiations.
The
Afghan government has not said how much rent it would want for three or
four U.S. bases, but it is believed to be in the billions. Afghanistan
is also thought to be seeking security guarantees to protect its porous
borders, including the frontier with Pakistan that is the main
infiltration route for insurgents who retain sanctuary in Pakistan's
lawless tribal areas.
It was unclear how Karzai expected the United States or any of its allies to guarantee Afghanistan's borders against attack.
