The NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the western military alliance had to be ready for more casualties in Afghanistan, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on July 19.
Writing a column for Monday's edition of the Hamburg-based afternoon daily Hamburger Abendblatt, Rasmussen said, "Regrettably there will be more victims. But these military campaigns are of enormous political importance. They will contribute to the political and military weakening of the Taliban."
He acknowledged that the West had "underestimated" the Afghan war. "It is undeniable that, at the beginning, the international community underestimated the scale of this challenge," Rasmussen was quoted saying ahead of a major international conference on Afghanistan, scheduled to be held in Kabul on Tuesday.
"It has become painfully clear, after nine years of this international engagement, that the price that we have to pay is much higher than expected - particularly in view of the number of international and Afghan soldiers killed," he added.
The NATO boss stressed it was his objective to hand over security responsibility to the Afghan forces, but continue to support the national troops for a long period. Nearly 2,000 western soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of 2001.
