Karzai threatens to block NATO offensive

The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has cast doubt over NATO's planned summer offensive against the Taliban in the southern province of Kandahar, as more than 10,000 American troops pour in for the fight. Karzai threatened to delay or even cancel the operation–one of the biggest of the nine-year war–after being confronted in Kandahar by elders who said it would bring strife, not security, to his home province. Visiting last week to rally support for the offensive, the president was instead overwhelmed by a barrage of complaints about corruption and misrule. As he was heckled at a shura of 1,500 tribal leaders and elders, he appeared to offer them a veto over military action. "Are you happy or unhappy for the operation to be carried out?" he asked. The elders shouted back: "We are not happy." "Then until the time you say you are happy, the operation will not happen," Karzai replied.