MADRID - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday this week's suicide attack on a five-star hotel in Kabul signified a "worrying moment" for Afghanistan.
"When you compare the situation today in Afghanistan to five years ago, I am not sure if we are advancing or going backwards," Erdogan told a business forum in Madrid.
"There was a moment of stability but then the terrorist organisations operating in Afghanistan started to attack again. We are experiencing a worrying moment," he added.
Turkey has 1,200 soldiers in Afghanistan, based around Kabul, as part of an international peacekeeping force in the country.
A Norwegian journalist was killed during Monday's attack on the Kabul Serena Hotel, one of the boldest assaults carried out by the hardline Taliban movement in the heavily protected heart of the Afghan capital.
The Taliban, ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001, said it carried out the attack to herald a year of new tactics in its intensifying insurgency against the government and its international allies.
The US military announced Tuesday it was sending 3,2000 additional troops to Afghanistan to counter the expected offensive by the Taliban and help train Afghan national soldiers.
The extra troops will raise the number of US personnel in Afghanistan to around 30,000.
The United States contributes one-third of the 42,000-strong NATO mission in Afghanistan, making it the largest participant, on top of the 16,000 US troops which are operating independently in the country.
Erdogan was in Spain to attend the first forum of the United Nations-backed Alliance of Civilizations which aims to combat intolerance between people of different cultures in the wake of the September 11, 2001 and other attacks.
ds/pal/ag
01/16/2008 18:33 GMT