Karzai: Foreign contractors are militias

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused of foreign security contractors in the country of performing as militias amid increasing violence.

Karzai made the comments on Sunday in the presence of the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, in a meeting with key local and religious leaders in the volatile Kandahar province.

The visit comes ahead of a large-scale NATO operation in the province. Many of the 30,000 additional American troops to be deployed to Afghanistan are to participate in the operation.

Karzai said the security contractors are worsening the security situation in Afghanistan, calling for their contracts to be cancelled and new ones to be signed after consultations with Kabul.

Notorious American security firm Xe Services LLC, formerly known as Blackwater, has been reportedly involved in the civilian killings in several cases.

Growing discontent over the civilian causalities have sabotaged the chances of western forces victory in Afghanistan, analysts say.

Despite the presence of nearly 130,000 US-led soldiers in the war-torn country, civilians continue to pay the price for the 2001 invasion that sought to uproot the Taliban.