NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, has assured that the alliance would continue to support Afghanistan, even after the foreign combat mission ends in 2014.
NATO and the United States will withdraw troops from Afghanistan at the end of the year. However, about 12,000 U.S. and NATO forces will stay back to provide training and backup for Afghan security forces.
"We are ending the combat mission and are starting a new chapter in which the future of Afghanistan is in the hands of the Afghan people," Stoltenberg said, according to The Associated Press.
NATO has already committed to donate $4.1 billion annually to the Afghan national forces.
In a joint news conference with Stoltenberg, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said that the NATO investment in the Afghan security force was a success. He also said that he was eager to work with the alliance.
"After December 31, 2014, only Afghan forces will be responsible for the use of weapons, this, however, does not mean an end to cooperation with NATO, but the start of a new process," he said, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, authorities in the eastern Paktia province of Afghanistan received the bodies of 10 civilians who were shot dead by the Taliban, said provincial police Chief General Zalmai Huryakhil.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that the militant group was responsible for the killings, and all 10 were police personnel.
However, Huryakhil insisted that they were not security personnel, but civilians from Khost and Logar provinces.
Local village elders had to bring the bodies, as security forces were not able to operate in the regions where the bodies were discovered.
