Karzai: U.S troops aggravate Afghans

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the highly visible presence of U.S. troops in his country is counterproductive, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

In an hourlong interview with the newspaper in Kabul, Karzai said Afghans have lost patience with the long-term presence of U.S. soldiers.

"The time has come to reduce military operations," the president told the Post. "It's not desirable for the Afghan people either to have 100,000 or more foreign troops going around the country endlessly."

Karzai said native Afghan troops could be taking more responsibility for the country's security and U.S anti-insurgent night-time capture-and-kill missions were aggravating citizens.

"The Afghan people don't like these raids -- if there is any raid, it has to be done by the Afghan government within the Afghan laws," he said.

An unidentified NATO military spokesman told the Post the alliance didn't see any alternatives.

"We understand President Karzai's concerns, but we would not be as far along as we are pressuring the network had it not been for these very precision operations we do at night," the official said. "I don't see any near-term alternative to this kind of operation."