Britain's former ambassador to Afghanistan, Sherard Cowper-Coles, harshly criticized America's top military commander, <br />General David Petraeus. <br /><br />Sherard Cowper-Coles said in an interview with the Guardian that Petraeus should be "ashamed of himself" for citing Taliban deaths as a sign of progress in the country.<br /><br />Cowper-Cole's was speaking in response to Petraeus' statement, "In a typical 90-day period, in fact, precision operations by US special mission units and their Afghan partners alone kill or capture some 360 targeted insurgent leaders".<br /><br />Petraeus' approach diverges from that of his predecessor, Stanley McChrystal, who prioritized the protection of Afghanistan civilians over military gains -- a strategy Cowper-Coles says is more in line with the US counter-insurgency manual that the two men wrote together.<br /><br />Petraeus moves to a new post in September as head of the CIA. <br /><br />Al Jazeera's Adam Raney reports.
