Karzai denounces Achin bombing as a brutal act

KABUL (Pajhwok): Former president Hamid Karzai, excoriating the dropping of the mother of all bombs in eastern Nangarhar province, has asked the Trump administration to be sincere toward the Afghans.

In an interview aired on Monday, he denounced the use of the 11-tonne bomb as a “brutal act” against the sovereignty of Afghanistan. He stressed an immediate end to brutalities against his country.

“The US [must] engage with the Afghan people towards a peaceful solution where we can live in our own country peacefully,” the ex-president told Al-Jazeera after the massive bombing.

Local officials say more than 90 Islamic State (Daesh) fighters were killed when a US aircraft dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb on a cave complex in Achin district near the Pakistan border.

Karzai lashed out at President Donald Trump for allowing the use of a bomb of this size and cooperation from the Afghan leader, Ashraf Ghani. “I very strongly believe this was an inhumane act.”

The bombing in Tora Bora was a brutal act against “an innocent country, against innocent people, against our land, against our sovereignty, against our soil and against our future”, Karzai remarked.

“A bomb of that magnitude has consequences for the environment, for lives, for our plants, for our water, for our soil – this is poison, a poison that will be there for years,” he added.

While seeking an end to military intervention from the US in the region, Karzai asked:  “How can we allow our country to be used this way, and why? Why should Afghanistan suffer in such a massive way with a bomb so big, so dangerous, that they themselves call the ‘mother of all bombs?”

Earlier, Ghani said the bombing was necessary to help the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The airstrike was in support of the of the ANSF and US forces, hw tweeted.

PAN Monitor/mud

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