NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance was committed to its strategy in Afghanistan despite recent attacks on military advisers and US soldiers after the burning of copies Holy Quran at a NATO military base.
“This is a very unfortunate incident, I can also clearly state that the preliminary results of the investigations that have been initiated reveal that this incident was unintentional,” Rasmussen said during his monthly press conference in Brussels.
“There was no malicious intent to mishandle religious material and our commanders in Afghanistan will make the decision about the appropriate next steps to also avoid such incidents in the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NATO chief stressed that the incident would not change NATO’s strategy in Afghanistan.
“What has happened will not in any way change our strategy and our way forward. The transition … will continue according to the timetable we outlined in Lisbon in 2010,” he said.
Rasmussen said he spoke to Afghan President Hamid Karzai last week and encouraged him to take all necessary steps to ensure violence comes to an end and to protect NATO forces from attacks.
“He gave me reassurances in this regard,” the NATO chief said.
Some 30 people have been killed and over 180 others injured during protests across Afghanistan over the burning of Quran by U.S. forces in Bagram, an incident which NATO forces said was not intentional.
The Bagram Airbase is the main U.S. and NATO military base located 50 km north of Kabul.
