The Times wrote on February 1:

"President Karzai announced a timetable for the first round of peace talks with the Taleban yesterday as US troops admitted that they may have bombed an Afghan army base by mistake... Speaking in Kabul for the first time since he returned from last week’s London conference, Mr Karzai called on militants in Pakistan to return home and make peace so that US-led forces could withdraw. The Taleban have called repeatedly for all foreign forces to leave Afghanistan as a precondition of talks.

"... details emerged of an [U.S.] attack south of the capital that left four Afghan soldiers dead and at least seven injured... Afghan troops in a remote outpost mistook the American patrol for insurgents and opened fire. Nato said that the Americans, on a joint patrol with Afghan commandos, returned fire before calling in an airstrike...

"Hours earlier, an interpreter opened fire at a base in the same province, killing two US soldiers before being shot... Afghan authorities confirmed the account, saying that the interpreter had argued with troops over pay."