Pentagon: Kabul attack not to change U.S. Afghan strategy

The suicide bomber attack in Kabul over the weekend will not deter the U.S. from carrying out its Afghanistan strategy, the Pentagon said Tuesday. "(The Taliban) believe that by doing it in Kabul that they can have an even greater psychological effect on the Afghan government and Afghan civilians," Navy Capt. John Kirby, deputy assistant secretary of defense for media operations, told reporters. "But the bottom line is it's not going to change the way the strategy's being executed, writ large." A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car next to a military convoy in western Kabul on Saturday, killing 13 foreign troops and four Afghans, according to International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan official statements. The Taliban took credit for the attack. "These attacks are designed for psychological impact," Kirby said. "To give these attacks, as lethal as they have been and as pointed as they have been, more weight than they deserve wouldn't be warranted." The rising violence came as the Obama administration began to pull out troops from the central Asian country this summer. Under the president's withdrawal plan, 10,000 U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of this year and another 23,000 will return home by September 2012. The ultimate goal is to transfer lead security responsibility to the Afghan forces by 2014.