KABUL: Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that those behind Tuesday's killing of Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading peace efforts in Afghanistan, “will not prevail.”

”To those who offer only death and destruction to the Afghan people, our message is clear: you will not prevail,” Rasmussen said in a statement.

“You will not stop the Afghan people from taking their destiny in their own hands and you will not shake the resolve of the international and Afghan partnership.

“We will continue to work shoulder to shoulder to provide a better and safer future for the Afghan people.”

Rasmussen said he strongly condemned the killing of Rabbani by a Taliban suicide bomber who was carrying explosives in his turban.

“This is an attack on the Afghan people, as they begin to take their country's security in their own hands,” he added.

Foreign forces started handing control of security in some provinces to Afghan forces earlier this year ahead of a 2014 deadline for all foreign combat forces to leave Afghanistan.

There are currently 140,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan, mainly serving as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).