KABUL — President Hamid Karzai has condemned a NATO air strike in Afghanistan's lawless east that Afghan officials say may have killed up to eight civilians, the latest evidence of friction between the president and his international backers. Karzai's office also lashed out on Sunday at the senior US diplomat for Afghanistan and Pakistan, James Dobbins, after Dobbins referred to the Afghan conflict as a “civil war”. “President Hamid Karzai termed the attack on women and children against all internationally agreed principles and strongly condemned it,” Karzai's office said in a statement. The air strike was targeting insurgents in the border province of Kunar, a mountainous province that shares a long and porous border with lawless tribal areas of Pakistan. “We can confirm that we undertook a precision strike in ... Kunar, and are able to confirm 10 enemy forces killed,” said a spokeswoman for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, First Lieutenant Ann Marie Annicelli. NATO had received no reports of civilian casualties, she said. Kunar police chief Abdul Habib Sayed Khaili and provincial governor Shujaul Mulk Jalala said at least eight civilians, including three women, four children and a truck driver, had been caught up in an air strike targeting Taliban fighters. They said the truck was hit after the driver gave the Taliban fighters a lift. The strike occurred at about 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jalala said. — Reuters
