US ambassador hits back at Karzai over anti-America comments

Kabul - US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry has reacted sharply to comments made by President Hamid Karzai, denouncing America's aid efforts in the country.

 Ambassador Eikenberry said he found comments from a few Afghan leaders 'hurtful and inappropriate.'

He spoke a day after Karzai had denounced US and NATO forces for being in Afghanistan for their own purposes.

"When I hear some of your leaders call us occupiers, I cannot look at these mourning parents, spouses, and children in the eye and give them a comforting reply" Eikenberry told an audience of students at Herat University in western Afghanistan.

"When we hear ourselves being called occupiers and worse, our pride is offended and we begin to lose our inspiration to carry on," he added.

Last month, Karzai had warned that NATO forces would be seen as occupiers and will face a national uprising unless they stopped air strikes on local  houses.