On Saturday, December 11, President Hamid Karzai once again urged NATO to exit its troops from Afghan villages as those are not places where counter-terrorism war should be fought.

Speaking in a conference in Kabul, he said, "We want foreign troops to leave our villages, streets and bazaars and go to their bases and withdraw gradually by the end of 2014." Mr. Karzai believes that villages and districts in Afghanistan are not hideouts of Taliban or fighters of other insurgent groups but they have safe havens beyond the borders of this country.

Nonetheless, the US Special Forces have been reaching high-profile insurgents through their targeted operations in districts and villages across Afghanistan. Such operations have been called pivotal by US military authorities in keeping terrorists at bay, although President Karzai has repeatedly criticized them.

Such opposition from Karzai caused the US to give Afghan Commandos the leading role in special operations and night raids. Searching houses for insurgents are now performed by Afghan soldiers.

Karzai's comments comes at a time when security responsibilities of more than half of Afghanistan are handled by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and thousands of foreign forces have been pull out of Afghanistan under the NATO's withdrawal plan that is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.

In fact, Afghan districts, where foreign and Afghan troops have little or no presence, are used by insurgents as their hideouts. Such districts are used by insurgents to plant IEDs that kill more civilians than foreign or Afghan troops. Such locations are platforms for Taliban to launch attacks on Afghan National Army (ANA) and NATO troops and those are the places where Taliban – instead of Afghan government - have been executing men, women and children for minor crimes. In 2010, Ministry of Interior Affairs admitted that nearly 90 percent of Afghan districts are under varying control of insurgents. Since that year, security condition has been deteriorating in Afghanistan.

But President Karzai's criticism also holds weight. There have been incidents where NATO forces have flown blind. They have attacked wedding ceremonies, funerals and children collecting woods. Such blunders have resulted in deaths of innocent men, women and children for several times in the last ten years and have been caused by poor communication and coordination between Afghan and foreign security forces and wrong intelligence reports.

So, there is a need for better fighting strategy and effective coordination between ANA and NATO to target insurgents wherever they are.