United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to the media after a Security Council meeting at United Nations Headquarters, Monday, March 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to the media after a Security Council meeting at United Nations Headquarters, Monday, March 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gestures as he speaks in the daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, March 12, 2012. The massacre of Afghan civilians allegedly carried out by a U.S. soldier newly undermines a war that a majority of Americans already thought wasn't worth fighting. But the Obama administration and its allies insist the horrific episode won't speed up plans for the gradual exit of foreign forces over the next two years. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
In this Sunday, March 11, 2012 photo, men stand next to blood stains and charred remains inside a home where witnesses say Afghans were killed by a U.S. soldier in Panjwai, Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. An Afghan youth recounted on Monday the terrifying scene in his home as a lone U.S. soldier moved stealthily through it during a killing spree, then crouched down and shot his father in the thigh as he stepped out of the bedroom. The soldier, now in U.S. custody, is accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in their homes in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday and then burning some of their corpses. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said nine of those killed were children and three were women. (AP Photo/Allauddin Khan)
Former Taliban militants line up with their weapons to attend in a joining ceremony with the Afghan government in Mehterlam, Laghman province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 12, 2012. About 200 former Taliban militants from Laghman province handed over their weapons as part of a peace-reconciliation program. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
In this Sunday, March 11, 2012 photo, men stand next to blood stains and charred remains inside a home where witnesses say Afghans were killed by a U.S. soldier in Panjwai, Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. An Afghan youth recounted on Monday the terrifying scene in his home as a lone U.S. soldier moved stealthily through it during a killing spree, then crouched down and shot his father in the thigh as he stepped out of the bedroom. The soldier, now in U.S. custody, is accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in their homes in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday and then burning some of their corpses. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said nine of those killed were children and three were women. (AP Photo/Allauddin Khan)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The weekend massacre of Afghan civilians, allegedly carried out by a U.S. soldier, further undermines the rationale for a war that a majority of Americans already thought wasn't worth fighting. But the Obama administration and its allies insisted Monday the horrific episode would not speed up plans to pull out foreign forces.
President Barack Obama cautioned against a "rush for the exits," telling television interviewers that the killings underscored the need to hand over responsibility for security to Afghans. He called the episode tragic, but said he would stick to his plan to gradually withdraw forces over the next two years.
"Keep in mind that I have put us on a path where we're going to have this war over by the end of 2014, that our troops will be coming out, but we'll be coming out responsibly," Obama said in an interview with KABC in Los Angeles.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the killings "inexplicable."
Speaking at the United Nations in New York, Clinton vowed that the incident "does not change our steadfast dedication to protecting the Afghan people and to doing everything we can to build a strong and stable Afghanistan."
A U.S. Army staff sergeant is accused of slipping away from his base in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar and shooting nearby villagers in their homes. The house-by-house attack killed 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children asleep in their beds. The Pentagon offered no explanation of a possible motive, and would not release the soldier's name.
The killings were the latest in a series of deadly incidents that caused outrage for both Americans and Afghans.
The killing of Americans by their Afghan hosts and of Afghans by the Americans who are supposed to help them have forced an acute examination of a war strategy that calls for Afghans to assume greater responsibility for security through mentoring and "shoulder by shoulder" joint operations.
Despite the deaths, "Our strategic objectives have not changed and they will not change," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
Obama expanded the Afghan war in the first year of his presidency, saying it was in keeping with U.S. national security interests in contrast to the Iraq war he opposed. But the war, now in its 11th year, remains a stalemate in much of the country, while the al-Qaida terror network that the war is supposed to deter has largely abandoned Afghanistan. U.S. commandos killed Sept. 11, 2001, mastermind Osama bin Laden last year.
"It's been a decade, and frankly now that we've gotten bin Laden and we've weakened al-Qaida, we're in a stronger position," to hand over security control to the Afghans, Obama said in the KDKA interview.
The war is increasingly becoming a political headache for Obama, with American voters appearing frustrated and Republican rivals accusing him of mishandling it.
In results from a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted before the killings and released Sunday, 55 percent of respondents said they think most Afghans oppose what the United States is trying to do there. And 60 percent said the war in Afghanistan has been "not worth fighting."
Under an agreement with the Afghan government, some U.S. and NATO forces are to stay in Afghanistan at least through the end of 2014.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sought assurances that the foreign forces that support his fragile government will not leave en masse. He is due to leave office in 2014, and both he and Western leaders have said it will take that long to get the Afghan military ready to take on Taliban-led militants who are unlikely to quit the fight.
Carney would not say whether Obama worries that the killings increase security risks for Americans in Afghanistan. The United States has about 90,000 troops in the country; that number is scheduled to drop to 68,000 by the end of September.
In an interview Monday with Denver station KCNC-TV, Obama said, "We've got to make sure that we're caring for our soldiers, caring for our men and women in uniform who are serving so valiantly, and we're caring for their families. And that's why we've actually put more resources into dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries."
He added: "And obviously what happened this weekend was absolutely tragic and heartbreaking. But when you look at what hundreds of thousands of our military personnel have achieved under enormous strain, you can't help but be proud generally."
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking with reporters traveling with him to Kyrgyzstan, said the death penalty is a consideration as the military moves to investigate and possibly put on trial the soldier suspected in the deaths. In his first public remarks on the incident, Panetta said Monday the shootings must not derail the military mission in Afghanistan, and pressure to do so from political leaders in Kabul and Washington must not alter that course.
Military movements were kept to a minimum Monday near the shooting site as commanders waited to see how the local population reacts, but there were no huge protests in the country. U.S. officials were worried that the Taliban would stoke public outrage this week in an attempt to turn the regular Friday prayer sessions into mass demonstrations.
"We're fully aware that this has the possibility of raising ire and emotions in a place where tensions are already running high," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. "We would appeal for calm. "
Like other U.S. officials, Toner promised a thorough U.S. investigation and prosecution.
Even before the shootings, anti-Americanism was boiling in Afghanistan over U.S. troops burning Muslim holy books, including Qurans, last month on an American base. The burnings came to light soon after a video purporting to show four Marines urinating on Taliban corpses was posted on the Internet in January.
Americans, meanwhile, were outraged by the killings of American military advisers by Afghan soldiers. In the month of February, there were at least seven cases of Americans killed by Afghan soldiers, more than died in combat.
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Associated Press writers Heidi Vogt in Kabul and Matthew Lee, Robert Burns, Julie Pace and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.
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