Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, the top commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, has denounced a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least nine people, including six ISAF personnel, in Kabul on Thursday and offered his condolences to the victims' families.
Noting that the attack took place in a thickly populated residential area in the Afghan capital, Dunford stressed in a statement late on Thursday that the six ISAF personnel killed in the explosion "were in Afghanistan to bring peace and stability" to the country.
Offering his condolences to the loved ones of the victims of what he described as senseless violence, the ISAF Commander assured them that their sacrifice would not be in vain.
"The insurgents use these desperate and indiscriminate acts of violence to slow the momentum of Afghanistan's progress. The insurgents cannot offer the Afghan people a better future. All they can offer is violence and oppression," Dunford said, adding that the insurgents were not capable of offering a positive vision for the country's future.
Stressing that the insurgents are not a threat to the Afghan government and its forces, Dunford added: "The Afghan people and the hundreds of thousands of Afghan soldiers and policemen serving to build that brighter future will not be deterred. That is a vision the insurgents can never take from the people."
In addition to the six ISAF service personnel, nine civilians, including two children, were also killed and more than 30 injured in the Thursday's suicide attack in Kabul's eastern industrial district of Karta-e Naw during the morning rush hours.
With the latest deaths, the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year has risen to 65, thereby making May the bloodiest month for ISAF in 2013.
There are over 100,000 foreign troops from more than 48 countries in Afghanistan to contain a resurgent Taliban in the war-ravaged South Asian country. The U.S. continues to be the single biggest contributor to the ISAF, with 68,000 soldiers on the ground.
Currently, the ISAF is making serious efforts to ensure that the Afghan security forces are capable of handling the country's security ahead of the planned withdrawal of all coalition troops from the country by end of 2014. However, there are wide concerns about the ability of Afghan forces to counter Taliban insurgency without the same level of foreign military assistance and presence.
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