It has been another bloody weekend in Afghanistan. Earlier today a bomb attack in northern Afghanistan killed five people, including a district mayor and a local member of the government-run peace council. On Sunday, a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed a district government chief and three of his bodyguards. On Saturday, a member of the Afghan National Police opened fire and killed at least 10 of his colleagues in southwestern Afghanistan. And on Friday, six U.S. troops were killed. Early on Friday, three U.S. Marines were gunned down by a Afghan police commander and his men after accepting an invitation to have dinner. Later on Friday, an Afghan civilian working at a NATO base shot dead three more U.S. soldiers.

Brigadier General Günter Katz of NATO: “Let me clearly say that those incidents do not — clearly do not reflect the overall situation in Afghanistan, where almost 500,000 soldiers and policemen are working together, side by side, enhancing their trust and enhancing their cooperation, in order to, together, fight for a better future of this country and together to pressure the insurgency.”