Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that NATO's efforts to prevent civilian deaths during its operations are not enough. In a speech at the opening session of the Afghan parliament, Karzai also repeated his call to Taliban fighters to renounce al-Qaeda and join with the government. Karzai held up a picture of an 8-year-old girl who he said was the only one left to recover the bodies of her 12 relatives, all killed when two NATO rockets struck their home during the offensive in the southern town of Marjah. He called the incident a tragedy for all Afghanistan. NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal attended the speech. However, Karzai stressed that the effort is not sufficient. «We need to reach the point where there are no civilian casualties,» Karzai said. «Our effort and our criticism will continue until we reach that goal.»
