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KABUL – The United States encountered mounting challenges to its presence in Afghanistan Thursday, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the U.S. to withdraw to military bases and the Taliban announced it was suspending tentative peace talks.

Karzai asked the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Afghan villages and to confine them to bases following a shooting rampage by a U.S. staff sergeant that killed 16 civilians.

The dramatic request, which Karzai's office said was made during a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, would -- if accepted -- essentially end the US combat role just as the annual Taliban spring offensive begins, The Wall Street Journal reported.


There are currently some 90,000 US troops in the country.

Within minutes of Karzai's statement, the Taliban declared it was suspending their negotiations with the US because the US "turned back on its promises," such as the release of Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

While the Taliban left the door open to resuming the talks, Karzai's move had potentially more far-reaching ramifications. "Not a single foreign soldier should enter Afghan homes, and the entire attention should switch to the country's reconstruction and economic assistance," the Afghan president's statement said.

Under current plans, the US and its allies are supposed to withdraw most combat forces by the end of 2014, transferring security responsibilities to the Afghan army and police.

Karzai said Thursday that "Afghanistan is right now ready to completely take all security responsibilities, so we demand a speedy transition and the handover of responsibility to the Afghans."

Panetta meanwhile shrugged off a potentially lethal attack on a coalition base in Afghanistan as his plane was about to land, insisting he was not the target.

"I have absolutely no reason to believe that this was directed at me," Panetta said after meeting Karzai.

Panetta said he was flying into a war area, and therefore "we're going to get these kind of incidents."

An Afghan man carrying gasoline and a lighter drove a stolen truck onto the tarmac at Camp Bastion in Helmand as Panetta's plane came in to land Wednesday. After crashing into a ditch, he lit himself on fire.

The attacker, identified by the WSJ as a contract interpreter, was taken to a military hospital with burns over most of his body and died Thursday.

A British serviceman was injured in the hijacking, with the attacker then heading toward a group of US Marines, who gathered to greet Panetta on the runway ramp.

"My personal opinion is yes, he had an attempt to harm," US Army Lt. Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, the day-to-day military commander in Afghanistan, said. "I think, frankly, he tried to hit the people on the ramp."

About 1,000 Afghans took to the streets Thursday to protest against the mass killing of 16 civilians in a rampage by a US soldier and the earlier unintentional burning of Korans by US soldiers, police said.

Shouting anti-American slogans, the demonstrators poured into the main town of Qalat, in Zabul Province neighboring Kandahar, where the shooting spree took place Sunday, regional police spokesman Hekmatullah Kochai told AFP.

The protesters were demanding a public trial for the shooter, identified as a 38-year-old US Army sergeant who has since been flown out of Afghanistan.

FOX News Channel, citing army sources, said he was in Kuwait. Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said the decision to remove him was made because there was no appropriate detention facility inside the country.



Read more: Karzai Wants Early US Troops Pullback As Panetta Shrugs Off Afghan Runway Attack | Fox News

Give him what he wants. 100% immediate withdrawal. No troops, no aid, NOTHING. If we find something that is potentially damaging to the U.S, we send in some Tomahawks and call it a day. No apologies, no explanation, no working with them, no worries. If they have a problem with it... they are free to declare war on us as a country and get wiped off the face of the planet in a matter of minutes.

F*ck every one of these pieces of sh*t. They are not worth the life of even a single American. Let them kill themselves.