Obama, Karzai Share a 'Working Lunch'

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Obama's International Tour

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has embarked on a weeklong tour of the Middle East and Europe designed to deepen his foreign policy credentials, confront questions at home about his readiness to be commander in chief and signal the possibility of a new era in U.S. relations with the rest of the world.

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The McCain campaign statement noted, "Barack Obama says he wants a 'safe and responsible' withdrawal from Iraq, but is stubbornly adhering to an unconditional withdrawal that places politics above the advice of our military commanders, the success of our troops, and the security of the American people."

On Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was quoted in the German magazine Der Spiegel as embracing Obama's 16-month withdrawal timetable, causing a stir at the White House. Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad contacted Maliki's office to express concern and seek clarification on the remarks, according to White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. Later in the day, a Maliki aide released a statement saying the remarks had been mistranslated and misunderstood, though without citing specifics. Der Spiegel issued a statement standing by the quotations.

The meeting with Karzai took place a few hours after Obama, Reed and Hagel met with U.S. troops at Camp Eggers, a heavily fortified U.S. base in the Afghan capital.

Karzai and Obama met over a traditional Afghan meal of rice, chicken and mutton at the presidential palace a little more than a week after Obama pointedly criticized Karzai's leadership in the face of deteriorating security conditions. In an interview with CNN, Obama said Karzai had "not gotten out of the bunker" to help the country develop.

Karzai's spokesman declined to say directly whether the two touched on the senator's recent remarks, but he said Obama's comment was not without merits.

"We didn't see that as a criticism per se because there is a degree of realism in that statement and that is the fact that while we are making significant progress in rebuilding our country, we are also facing a significant threat of terrorism that is imposed upon us and the Afghan people," Hamidzada said. "So the fact that we are spending a lot of our resources and energy fighting terrorism that is exported from the south is a reality."

The high-level meeting Sunday came as Afghan officials reported that eight Afghan police were killed and six wounded in a "friendly fire" incident involving NATO forces and Afghan police at an Afghan checkpoint in the western province of Farah. Provincial police chief Khalilulah Rahmani said the incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday when Afghan police mistakenly fired on a NATO convoy in the district of Anar Dara. The eight police officers were killed after NATO forces called in an airstrike during the firefight.

NATO officials also reported Sunday that four civilians were accidentally killed in the eastern province of Paktika when NATO forces fired two mortar rounds at a suspected Taliban location. The bombs landed wide of their target by half a mile.

Civilian casualties and "friendly fire" incidents have been an issue of much contention inside Afghanistan. Karzai recently called for investigations into several NATO airstrikes that resulted in civilian casualties, including a July 6 bombing that killed 47 people in the eastern province of Nangahar.

Obama and the other senators visited Nangahar on Saturday, meeting with U.S. troops and the provincial governor in the city of Jalalabad.

Asked whether Karzai discussed civilian casualties from NATO operations, Hamidzada said only that the two men talked "broadly" about a range of issues.

Staff writer Dan Eggen in Crawford, Tex., contributed to this report.