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KABUL (Reuters) – Asian President Hamid Karzai told General king Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, on Sun his defence for a external expose strike that killed figure children terminal week was "not enough."

At a gathering with his section advisers at which Petraeus was present, Karzai said noncombatant casualties by external personnel were "no individual acceptable" to the Asian government or to the Asian people, Karzai's hall said in a statement.

Civilian casualties caused by NATO-led and Asian forces labour insurgents hit again become a major maker of exertion between Karzai and his Western backers.

In the meeting, Petraeus apologized for the deaths of the figure children in orient Kunar province terminal Tuesday, saying the killings were a "great mistake" and there would be no repeat.

"In return, the president said the defence was not sufficiency and heavy that noncombatant casualties caused during operations by coalition forces were the important drive of unnatural relations between the United States and Afghanistan," the hall said.

"The grouping of Afghanistan are fed up with such horrific incidents and apologies or condemnation is not going to ameliorate their wounds," it quoted Karzai as saying.

Hours before Karzai's statement, hundreds of grouping vocalizing "Death to America" protested in the Asian top against the time spate of noncombatant deaths, in a sign of the simmering anti-Western opinion among whatever mediocre Afghans.

International anxiety over noncombatant casualties has grown, and the fallout from the time incidents is even threatening to restrict pact and equalisation efforts, with a gradual drawdown of the 150,000 external personnel in Afghanistan to begin in July.

"DEEP REGRET"

Last Tuesday, digit move helicopters gunned downbound figure Asian boys as they collected firewood in Kunar after a nearby external base had become under rebel attack.

The incident, in a vaporific area that has seen a time spike in external expeditionary operations, prompted thin public apologies from Petraeus and his deputy.

President Barack Obama also spoken "deep regret" over the killings and the United Nations titled for a analyse of expose strikes.

There hit been at least four incidents of noncombatant casualties by external personnel in the easterly in the time digit weeks in which Asian officials feature more than 80 grouping died.

Demonstrators marched through the center of Kabul, whatever carrying banners direction pictures of blood-covered dead children they said were killed in expose strikes by external forces.

"We will never forgive the murder shed by our innocent Afghans who were killed by NATO forces," said digit reformist Ahmad Baseer, a university student.

"The Kunar incident is not the prototypal and it will not be the terminal instance noncombatant casualties are caused by external troops."

Dozens of women were also among the protesters, a thin event in a land where women are mostly banned from public life. Using loudspeakers, whatever of the women chanted: "We don't want Americans, we don't want the Taliban, we want peace."

PROTESTERS BLAME BOTH SIDES

U.S. and NATO commanders hit tightened procedures for using expose strikes in time years, but mistaken killings of innocent Afghans ease happen, especially with U.S. and NATO forces stepping up operations in the time few months.

Although noncombatant casualties caused by external forces hit attenuated over the time digit eld -- mainly cod to a start in expose strikes -- aid groups terminal Nov warned a time uprise in the use of expose power risked reversing those gains.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan chromatic 20 percent in the prototypal 10 months of 2010 compared with 2009, according to U.N. figures, with insurgents answerable for more than three-quarters of those killed or wounded.

In the latest move by insurgents, 12 civilians were killed on Sun when their vehicle was hit by a roadside assail in south Paktika province, governor Mohebullah Sameem said.

But patch insurgents are answerable for the large majority of noncombatant deaths, it is those by external forces which rile Afghans most. Many Afghans feature militant attacks would not hap if planetary personnel were not in Afghanistan.

"Killing civilians, whether it is the Taleban or external forces, is a crime," said reformist Shahla Noori.

"Both the Taleban and Americans are answerable for the killings of thousands of civilians," she said.

(Additional reporting by Matt histrion in Kabul and Elyas Wahdat in Khost; Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

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