Afghan President Hamid Karzai is reserving comment on a US air strike that hit an Afghan army post, killing five Afghan soldiers and injuring seven more.  Officials in eastern Afghanistan say a drone was involved, which the US is not confirming while acknowledging a mistake was made.

“We can confirm that at least five Afghan National Army personnel were accidentally killed this morning during an operation in eastern Afghanistan,” read a statement from the US-led military coalition.  “We value the strong relationship with our Afghan partners, and we will determine what actions will be taken to ensure incidents like this do not happen again.”

In the past, Karzai has condemned such strikes that have caused Afghan civilian and military casualties. 

“This attack, NATO has admitted to me they did it mistakenly.  We will investigate the issue and then speak about it,” Karzai said.

In the 12 years of US war in Afghanistan, Karzai has moved from US ally to being deeply troubled by all the casualties he has seen, caused by insurgents and those killed and injured in US military operations.  He feels betrayed by what he calls an insufficient US focus on targeting Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan. 

The US has come to see Karzai as unreliable at best, and possibly delusional.  The two sides are in row over Karzai’s refusal to sign a security agreement to permit a handful of US troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014.  They’ve agreed to wait until after Afghanistan’s April presidential elections, and have the winner sign it.