Obama applauds Afghan and Pakistan cooperation

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-07 17:05

Obama's strategy, unveiled in late March, already is threatened by setbacks to his goal of strengthening a shaky Pakistani government, eliminating al-Qaida and Taliban sanctuaries on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border and fighting Afghan government corruption. Claims of US culpability for civilian deaths in Afghanistan are an added burden.

Jones told reporters that the president began his meeting with Karzai by addressing the reported civilian deaths Sunday. Jones said Obama commented "with great sympathy" and expressed regret for the loss of innocent life. Earlier, before her meetings with Karzai and Zardari at the State Department, Clinton said the US "deeply, deeply" regrets the loss of civilian lives.

Both Obama and Clinton stopped short of accepting US blame for the deaths.

Obama told Karzai that investigations "will be pursued aggressively with full intent to discover what in fact did happen, how it happened and how we can make sure that things like that do not happen again. And it was clear that President Karzai was moved by that ... and he thanked the president for starting off the meeting with that expression of condolence."

Karzai did not ask that US airstrikes be suspended or reduced in intensity pending the outcome of the investigation, Jones said.

Nor did Zardari raise an equally sensitive topic on his side of the border -- the use of US Predator aircraft to attack extremist targets, Jones said. Pakistanis have strongly protested those attacks, saying they have killed innocent civilians.

In Afghanistan, the US forces commander said it wasn't a certainty that Sunday's deaths were a result of US military action. Gen. David McKiernan said American forces came to the aid of Afghans who may have been ambushed by the Taliban. He said the Taliban beheaded three civilians, perhaps to lure police.

"We have some other information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of the civilian casualties," McKiernan said. He would not elaborate.

Karzai, whose public criticism of US airstrikes has grown increasingly indignant, thanked Clinton politely for her concern.

"We appreciate that," Karzai said.

In his remarks at the White House, Obama emphasized the progress he said was achieved in the Washington meetings.

"We have advanced unprecedented cooperation," Obama declared. "We will work for the day when our nations are linked not by a common enemy but by a shared peace and prosperity."

Veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the administration's point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan and a participant in the meetings, was upbeat in brief remarks after Obama summarized the day's talks. "It was a day that exceeded our expectations," Holbrooke said. "We turned a corner" in improving coordination with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The stakes couldn't be higher, Obama said.

"We have learned time and again that our security is shared," the president said. "It is a lesson that we learned most painfully on 9/11, and it is a lesson that we will not forget."

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