Kabul – Thousands of Afghans have taken to the streets in the eastern province of Ghazni to show their anger over a US-led night time raid that killed two civilians in the area.

The protesters staged a rally last night, and strongly condemned the civilian casualties sustained during the deadly NATO airstrike. They also chanted anti-US slogans, Press TV reported.

Meanwhile, the Kabul-Kandahar Highway was blocked for hours by protesting local residents.

President Hamid Karzai said on December 24 that Afghanistan will not sign a strategic partnership deal with the United States until NATO night raids and house searches stop.

Karzai said that “arbitrary operations and house searches by NATO have become a serious problem between Afghanistan and NATO forces and that this has been one of the main obstacles on signing the strategic partnership deal with the United States.”

The loss of civilian lives at the hand of foreign forces has dramatically increased anti-American sentiments in Afghanistan.

A United Nations report on Afghanistan issued on September 28 said the average monthly number of security incidents recorded for the year through the end of August rose nearly 40 percent.

The report also said civilian casualties, already at record levels in the first six months of the year, rose 5 percent between June and August 2011, compared with the same three-month period in 2010.

Around 130,000 Afghans were displaced by the conflict in the first seven months of the year, up nearly two-thirds from the same period a year earlier.