Taliban Suspends Peace Talks With U.S.; Karzai Wants NATO Out Of Villages

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said all international troops should begin withdrawing from the country ahead of the 2014 deadline.

The president hopes that pulling foreign troops away from villages and back to their principal bases will prevent incidents like the massacre over the weekend, when an American soldier went door-to-door in two small towns killing civilians.

It's believed the incident, along with the Quran-burning fiasco earlier this month, is one reason the Taliban suspended negotiations with the United States government on Thursday. The group said Washington’s “alternating and ever changing position was the reason for the stalled peace talks.

On Sunday, 16 people died in an attack in Kandahar province, and Afghans are furious over the U.S. military's decision to try the soldier, who turned himself in, in the U.S.

It was the demand of the families of the martyrs of this incident, the people of Kandahar and the people of Afghanistan to try him publicly in Afghanistan, Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai, an MP on the parliamentary commission investigating the shootings, told the Associated Press.

Karzai also met with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Kabul on Thursday, where he repeated his desire that NATO soldiers leave rural areas and villages and hand over security to local forces by 2013, a year ahead of schedule.

Afghan security forces have the ability to keep the security in rural areas and in villages on their own, Karzai said in a statement.

Among other things discussed in the meeting between were the U.S.-led special operations missions against Taliban insurgents. The U.S. continues to target Taliban leaders, but Karzai thinks the raids cause too many unnecessary casualties.

The Afghan president has suggested foreign troops should be barred from entering civilian homes, and that soldiers produce search warrants before storming the houses of suspects, according to the Washington Post.

However, Panetta said the recent violence and wave of anti-American sentiment won't deter the United States from completing its mission in Afghanistan.