The new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan said Sunday he would comply with an intended order by President Hamid Karzai that prohibits Afghan forces from calling in NATO airstrikes on residential areas.
Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., on the job there for just a week, said the international coalition would find "other ways" to support Afghan ground forces, which frequently depend on NATO air power in their operations against Taliban insurgents.
Karzai announced his planned decree Saturday after 10 civilians, including five women and four children, died in a NATO airstrike last Tuesday night reportedly called in by Afghan intelligence operatives in a remote village in eastern Konar Province. The air attack on two homes also killed three militant commanders, Afghan officials said.