Karzai demands troops pull back to base after Afghan atrocity

His demand, made in a meeting with the US Defence Secretary, came as the Taliban said it was breaking off talks with the United States, claiming the US kept changing the terms of negotiations.

“Afghan security forces have the ability to keep the security in rural areas and in villages on their own,” Karzai said in a statement after meeting visiting US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.

He said he had conveyed his demand to Panetta during their meeting.

Afghan MPs are outraged that the US flew the soldier suspected of the killing spree to Kuwait when they were demanding he be tried in the country.

The soldier, who has not been named, is accused of going on a shooting rampage in villages near his base in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing nine children and seven other civilians, and then burning some of their bodies.

Karzai told Panetta the weekend shootings in southern Afghanistan were cruel and everything must be done to prevent any such incidents in the future. He said that was the reason he was demanding the pull-out from rural areas and early transfer of security.

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron said in Washington on Wednesday that they and their Nato allies were committed to shifting to a support role in Afghanistan in 2013.

Obama gave his fullest endorsement yet for the mission shift, but he said the overall plan to gradually withdraw forces and hand over security in Afghanistan will stand.

In January, after French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested that foreign forces speed up their timetable for handing combat operations to Afghan forces in 2013, Karzai said he would be in favour of that – if it were achievable.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said US negotiators wanted to broaden the discussion, but the group did not want the Afghan government included in the talks.

US officials have confirmed that an Afghan man who crashed a stolen vehicle on to the runway at Camp Bastion as US defence secretary Leon Panetta arrived there on Wednesday has died.

The driver, who suffered severe burns, apparently had a container of fuel in the vehicle, which ignited during yesterday’s crash at the airfield at Britain’s biggest base in Afghanistan.

A British soldier was injured when he tried to stop the driver from stealing the truck.