U.S. President Barack Obama (R) turns to Afghan President Hamid Karzai as he addresses a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, January 11, 2013.
The Afghan-U.S. relationship has been damaged by President Hamid Karzai's refusal to sign a bilateral security deal that would pave the way for a U.S. military presence after the withdrawal of most foreign troops this year.
The United States has said its troops cannot remain without a deal. Their complete departure of U.S. troops would leave Afghan security forces on their own to battle the Taliban.
Karzai is demanding that the United States end all unilateral military operations on Afghan territory - among other things - before the pact is signed, because they cause avoidable civilian deaths.
"We have called ... for an absolute end to ISAF/NATO military operations on homes and villages in order to avoid such killings where innocent children or civilians are the victims," the president's spokesman, Aimal Faizi, said when commenting on the death of the boy.
The International Security Assistance force (ISAF) is Afghanistan's NATO-led force. It is dominated by U.S. troops.
A spokesman for the governor of the southern province of Helmand told Reuters that U.S. Marines based in the violence-plagued province mistakenly shot the boy on Wednesday because visibility was poor.
"As the weather was dusty, the Marine forces based there thought he was an enemy and opened fire. As result of mistaken fire, he was killed," the spokesman, Omar Zwak, said by telephone.
A spokesman for the NATO-led force said the matter would be investigated and all possible measures were taken to avoid civilian casualties.
Separately, two U.S. service members and a civilian were killed in an aircraft crash in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, the NATO-led force said.
"At this time, there are no indications of enemy involvement in the cause of the aircraft mishap," the force said.
(Reporting by Jessica Donati and Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Robert Birsel)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. efforts to persuade Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a long-term security agreement according to Washington's timetable will likely fail, the lead American negotiator has warned the Obama administration, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
In a classified cable that the Post said was transmitted in recent days, U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham wrote that he did not think Karzai would agree to sign the agreement before Afghanistan's presidential election in April, the newspaper said, citing U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The United States wants the Afghanistan government to sign the agreement in matter of weeks if a contingent of U.S. troops is to remain there after 2014, the White House said on Monday.
Without a deal, the United States could pull out all troops, the "zero option," leaving Afghan forces to battle the Taliban on their own.
Karzai has called that an empty threat and suggested any security deal could wait until after the April elections.
The United States has 46,000 troops in Afghanistan, but that figure is set to fall to 34,000 by early 2014.
In a another move likely to strain U.S.-Afghan ties, a spokesman for Karzai said on Thursday that Afghanistan had enough evidence to try only 16 of 88 prisoners the United States considers a threat to security and plans to free the remaining detainees.
Washington strongly opposes their release because it says the prisoners being held in Afghanistan have been involved in the wounding or killing of U.S. and coalition troops.
(Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)