Karzai: Impasse may harm U.S. relations

The Associated Press

KABUL -- President Hamid Karzai is warning that any further delay turning over a key U.S.-run detention facility to full Afghan control would harm relations.

Karzai's statement comes after he and U.S. commander Gen. Joseph Dunford met Wednesday but failed to resolve the impasse that derailed a scheduled handover last Saturday. A NATO statement after the meeting said the parties pledged to continue dialogue to resolve the remaining issues.

The facility has an Afghan administrator but is U.S.-run. The Americans also have the power to veto the release of detainees they feel present a continuing threat -- a right they want to keep.

Karzai pledges that even after Afghans take over, they will keep anyone who is a security threat in custody.

A suicide bomber blew himself up, meanwhile, in a crowd of Afghans watching the traditional sport of buzkashi yesterday, killing seven people in the north of the country, officials said.

Among the seven killed in the remote village of Basos were several family members of the Afghan speaker of parliament, said regional police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai. Another eight people were wounded.

The parliament speaker, Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi, was born in Basos. Ahmadzai said the dead include his father, two brothers and one nephew.

The bomber hit around 6 p.m., just as fans gathered around the players as they came off the field at the end of the match, said Kunduz province police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini.

Buzkashi is akin to polo, but players on horseback use a headless goat carcass instead of a ball.

Karzai condemned the bombers for attacking Afghan civilians. "There was no foreign soldier or individual there, yet this was carried out by those terrorists who claim they are the enemies of foreign forces," he said.