New NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen ruled out setting a deadline for the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan, saying the western alliance will stay there "for as long as it takes.", Bloomberg reported.
Taking office after the bloodiest month since the war started in 2001, Rasmussen said an exit timetable would send up a white flag signaling that the West is surrendering the country to the radical Taliban movement.
"I'm not in favor of setting timelines," Rasmussen told a press conference at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels today. "Let no Taliban propagandist try to sell my message as a run for the exits. It is not. We will support the Afghan people for as long as it takes."
The death of 75 soldiers made July the deadliest month for international troops in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban and drove the followers of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden into the rugged mountainous terrain along the border with Pakistan.
At least 10 civilians were killed and 20 wounded today in a roadside bomb attack on a police convoy in Herat, western Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported. The assault in one of the country's calmer regions reflected stepped-up efforts by militants to sow havoc before Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential election.
Rasmussen, 56, a former Danish prime minister, took over on Aug. 1 from Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, 61, a Dutch diplomat who oversaw the escalation of the campaign in Afghanistan, the 28- nation alliance's first military venture outside Europe.