阿富汗总统批评美俄联合缉毒行动

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has criticised the first joint¹ operation by Russian and US agents to destroy drug laboratories in his country.

俄国和美国特工举行首次联合行动捣毁阿富汗境内的毒品生产窝点，阿富汗总统卡尔扎伊对此表示强烈不满。

Mr Karzai said he had not been informed of Russia's participation² - a sensitive issue in Afghanistan ever since the Soviet³ occupation ended 21 years ago.

He called it a violation⁴ of Afghan sovereignty and international law.

Russia said more than a tonne of heroin⁵ and opium⁶（鸦片，麻醉剂） , with a street value of $250m (£157m), was destroyed in the raid.

Officials in Moscow have in the past accused coalition⁷ forces in Afghanistan of doing little to tackle drugs, and thereby⁸ helping⁹ to sustain the estimated 2.5 million heroin addicts¹⁰ in Russia.

'No authorisation'

On Friday, the head of Russia's drug control agency said its agents had taken part in an operation on Thursday to destroy a "major hub" of drug production about 5km (three miles) from the Pakistani border, near the city of Jalalabad.

Viktor Ivanov said that along with 932kg (2,055lb) of high-grade heroin and 156kg (345lb) of opium, a large amount of technical equipment was destroyed.

But in a strongly worded statement on Saturday, President Karzai's office alleged¹¹ that Russian military personnel had taken part in the "illegal" raid.

"While Afghanistan remains¹² committed to its joint efforts with the international community against narcotics¹³（麻醉剂） , it also makes it clear that no organisation¹⁴ or institution shall have the right to carry out such a military operation without prior authorisation and consent（同意，一致） of the government of Afghanistan," it said.

"Such unilateral（单边的） operations are a clear violation of Afghan sovereignty as well as international law, and any repetition（重复，背诵） will be met by the required reaction from our side," the statement added.

Mr Karzai said Afghanistan wanted friendly ties with Moscow, but that the relationship had to be based on mutual¹⁵ consent.
 
A senior source in the delegation¹⁶ of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently on a visit to Vietnam, told the AFP news agency on Sunday that Kabul's reaction to the anti-drug operation was "simply surprising and incomprehensible" because "the Afghan interior ministry¹⁷ participated in this operation".

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says Afghanistan's elite¹⁸ counter narcotics force did participate in the operation but it appears that the president's office was not informed of who would accompany them.

Afghanistan's interior ministry said it thought that only Russian observers rather than Russian troops were to take part, our correspondent adds.

The president's national security adviser¹⁹, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, said Nato officials had apologised in private but that he wanted a public declaration.

Earlier, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said it had killed at least 19 Taliban fighters who tried to storm a combat outpost in the eastern province of Paktika under cover of darkness.

The militants²⁰ attacked from all directions, using rifles, rocket-propelled grenades（手榴弹） and mortars²¹, it added. Troops at the camp had to call in air support to repel²²（击退，抵制） the assault.

Five coalition soldiers were wounded in the fighting.