KABUL — NATO’s new secretary-general pledged Wednesday that the alliance would remain in Afghanistan despite flagging support in many nations from voters anxious over rising deaths among civilians and Western forces.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen flew to Kabul to meet with political and military leaders two days after taking control of an alliance struggling to maintain cohesion and relevance as it battles the Taliban thousands of miles from Europe.
“I can assure you and the Afghan people that we will stay and support you for as long as it takes to finish our job,” the former Danish prime minister told Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a joint news conference in Kabul.
About 65,000 troops from 42 nations serve in a NATO-led force hobbled by disagreements over the need for more troops and widely divergent national restrictions on when troops can fight.
Meanwhile Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, asking that “a few other ideas” be taken into account, has extended the deadline for an assessment of how to turn around the war in Afghanistan, an official said.
The report had been expected next week and now may come in late August or early September, Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said.
Six civilians were killed Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan by a roadside bomb like those used by Taliban militants, while American forces in southern Afghanistan killed four people who residents said were civilians.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
