U.S. Condemns Assassination of Kandahar Mayor

Ryan C. Crocker
Ambassador to Afghanistan

Kabul, Afghanistan

July 27, 2011

APTN Video

AMBASSADOR CROCKER: We condemn in the strongest possible terms the assassination of another senior Afghan government official. Our condolences are with his family and with the government and people of Afghanistan. Another indication again of, I think, both the challenges that Afghanistan faces but also the extraordinary resilience of the Afghan government and people.

AMBASSADOR CROCKER: I would judge that the Taliban is now damaged to the point where they can no longer conduct large-scale operations. They've had to kind of regroup and figure out what they can do and, in some cases, that has been assassination. We saw a very similar pattern in Iraq. Clearly these are horrific attacks but they can also be interpreted as a sign of significant organizational weakness on the part of the adversary.