Kabul has witnessed several explosions and suicide attacks in the past couple weeks in a spell of winter security setbacks that have many worried as the April elections draw near and foreign troops continue to pack up ahead of their withdraw in December.
In the past 10 days alone, attacks have occured in Kabul, Kandahar, Nimroz, Helmand and Nangarhar provinces.
The most high-profile of the attacks was last week's assault on a popular Kabul Lebanese restaurant that left 21 dead, including 13 foreign civilians.
Yesterday, two civilians were injured in a bomb blast in the Khair Khana area of Kabul.
And then just earlier today, a suicide bomber detonated explosives near an Afghan National Army (ANA) vehicle on 3rd street of Kabul's Kart-e-Naw neighborhood. Four people including a woman were killed and 22 others injured.
With less than a year before the NATO combat mission ends, and still no security deal reached with the U.S. or NATO ensuring a continued military partnership finalized, many Afghans have become increasingly concerned with the direction things are headed in.
"The suicide attacks are getting more every day and it has increased people's worries," a Kabul resident named Rahmatullah told TOLOnews. "People are in danger everywhere."
Many officials are concerned that insecurity, or at least fear of it, could lead to a low voter turnout in the April Presidential and Provincial Council elections.
Yet the Ministry of Interior, along with Afghan and foreign military leaders in recent months, expressed confidence in the Afghan security forces and their improved capabilities.
"Despite our challenges, we are working very seriously and the people should be confident that the Afghan security forces are fully committed to serving to their people," Ministry of Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqi said.
Some commentators were more critical, however, emphasizing the boost President Hamid Karzai's hesistance in signing the Kabul-Washington Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) gives to the anti-government insurgents.
"Whenever we lose our standing in the world by taking some wrong position, clearly we increase the insurgents' morale and they naturally increase their attacks to put the people under pressure," military expert Noorul Haq Ulumi said.