Afghan President Hamid Karzai asks for local help

KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought yesterday to rally public support for an upcoming military operation in the Taliban's birthplace, promising that U.S. and NATO troops would push into insurgent areas only after consultations with community leaders.

His remarks to about 2,000 officials and tribal leaders in Kandahar reflect a North Atlantic Treaty Organization strategy that makes bolstering the stature and capabilities of the Afghan government in the city, the largest in southern Afghanistan, as important as clearing neighborhoods of insurgents.

"There will be no military operation without your cooperation and consultation," Karzai told the leaders as the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and NATO's top civilian representative, Mark Sedwill, looked on.

As Karzai was appealing for public support, NATO confirmed that international troops were responsible for the deaths of five people, including three women, killed Feb. 12 in Gardez, south of Kabul. A NATO statement said a joint international-Afghan patrol fired on two men mistakenly believed to be insurgents. The three women were "accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men," it said.

U.S. and NATO forces are preparing a Kandahar campaign, expected to kick into high gear in June, that will test President Barack Obama's gamble that tens of thousands more troops can turn the tide in the 8-year war. NATO hopes to wrap it up by Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and prayer that begins in early August.

Both U.S. and Afghan commanders have emphasized the need for support among Kandahar's half-million people, most of them members of the same Pashtun ethnic group as the Taliban. The Taliban was organized in Kandahar in the early 1990s and made the city its headquarters before being ousted from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

Securing Kandahar is considered the key to turning back the Taliban in the south, which is the main battlefront of the war.

During his speech, Karzai, who was born in a village near Kandahar, appealed to tribal leaders to send their sons to the Afghan army and police to show support for the government.