Barack Obama, the US president, has dismissed General Stanley McChrystal, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, over disparaging comments about the president's staff in a Rolling Stone magazine interview.

Obama said he would not tolerate any act that could undermine civilian control of the US military.

The president was quick, however, to say that the counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan would continue – though without its chief architect.

Afghan officials expressed disappointment over McChrystal's dismissal, but Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, said he accepted the decision.

Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer reports.