Americas

Americas

Shooting spree not leads to immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan: Obama

13 March 2012 03:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that the shooting rampage which killed 16 civilians in Afghanistan will not lead to immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The killing of innocent civilians will not change the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, the president said in an interview with WFTV in Orlando, Florida.

"It does signal the importance of us transitioning in accordance with my plans that Afghans are taking more of the initiative in security," he said.

Under the president’s withdrawal plan, U.S. and NATO forces are scheduled to hand over security responsibility to the Afghan forces and end combat mission by 2014.

But the strategy has been put into question as relations between Washington and Kabul have been strained over a spate of incidents including the burning of copies of Quran by U.S. troops last month and most recently the shooting spree by a U.S. soldier in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar over the weekend.

In a separate interview with Pittsburgh CBS station KDKA Monday, Obama warned against "a rush for the exits" in Afghanistan.

"It’s important for us to make sure that we get out in a responsible way, so that we don’t end up having to go back in," he said. "What we don’t want to do, is to do it in a way that is just a rush for the exits."

White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Monday that the drawdown of U.S. forces from Afghanistan will continue as planned, but the pace will depend on "a variety of factors" that will be discussed when NATO leaders meet in Chicago on in May.