The U.S. troops will not withdraw from Afghanistan over the shooting rampage which killed 16 Afghan civilians on Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday in an interview with WFTV in Orlando, Florida.

Afghan National Army soldiers keep watch as Afghans gather around the killing site in Kandahar province, March 11, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

The killing of innocent civilians will not change the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Obama said.

"It does signal the importance of us transitioning in accordance with my plans that Afghans are taking more of the initiative in security," he said.

According to Obama's withdrawal plan, the U.S. and NATO forces are scheduled to hand over security responsibility to the Afghan forces and end combat mission by 2014.

Recently the relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan have been strained over the burning of copies of Quran by U.S. troops and the killing of civilians by a U.S. soldier in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

In a separate interview with Pittsburgh CBS station KDKA Monday, Obama warned against "a rush for the exits" in Afghanistan.

"It's important for us to make sure that we get out in a responsible way, so that we don't end up having to go back in," he said. "What we don't want to do, is to do it in a way that is just a rush for the exits."

White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Monday that the drawdown of U.S. forces from Afghanistan will continue as planned, but the pace will depend on "a variety of factors" that will be discussed when NATO leaders meet in Chicago on in May.

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