Afghan president Hamid Karzai is barring his country's ground forces from calling in NATO air strikes after an attack this week killed a number of children.

In an address on Saturday to young officers at a military academy in Kabul, he said asking for air support from foreign soldiers was banned from now "under any conditions"."Our forces ask for air support from foreigners and children get killed in an air strike," he said.This was apparently a reference to an attack during an overnight raid on Wednesday (local time) by combined Afghan and NATO ground forces on a Taliban hideout in a remote eastern region.Initial reports said 10 civilians, including five children and four women, were killed when the air strike was called in.Three Taliban commanders, including a notorious Al Qaeda-linked militant leader called Shahpoor, were also killed in the raid, Afghan officials said.