Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Monday condemned a U.S. coalition air strike that killed 14 guards of a road construction project in eastern Afghanistan.
Mr Karzai said last week the killing of Afghan civilians in air strikes was the biggest source of tension with his main backer, the United States, and called on president-elect Barack Obama to make it his priority to put a stop to it.
"Despite the Afghan government's constant requests to Nato and coalition forces to prevent air strikes that cause the death of innocent people and civilians, such an incident has happened once again which has no justification," a presidential palace statement from Mr Karzai said.
But a joint statement issued by the US military and Mr Karzai's own interior ministry said the guards had shot at coalition forces when troops stopped their vehicles in the eastern province of Khost on Sunday.
"The occupants of the vehicles got out of their vehicles and fired on the coalition forces who returned fire with rifles and helicopter gun fire," the joint statement said.
"There were secondary explosions in the vehicles, and 14 armed men were killed. Numerous ammunition belts and small-arms weapons were recovered from the vehicles," it said.
Mr Karzai called on foreign forces to do everything possible to avoid a repeat of such an incident.
"Carrying out such strikes increases the distance between the people and the Afghan government, and also between Afghanistan and its international allies," Mr Karzai said.
The incident comes after a string of mistaken US air strikes this year which have killed dozens of Afghan civilians, undermining public support for the continued presence of more than 60,000 Nato-led and US coalition troops in Afghanistan.
Reuters