The mayor of the Afghan city of Kandahar was killed by a suicide bomber Wednesday while leaving a city hall meeting. Ghulam Haidar Hamidi — who possessed duel Afghan and American citizenship — had expressed concerns about his safety in the preceding months. Hamidi is the latest Afghan official with close U.S. ties to lose his life in a string of attacks. President Hamid Karzai’s half-brother was killed earlier this month. Despite the setbacks, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the killings in fact signify a weakened al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Ryan Crocker: “I would judge that the Taliban is now damaged to the point where they can no longer conduct large-scale operations. They have had to kind of regroup and figure out what they can do, and in some cases, that has been assassination. Again, 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.”