French combat troops to pull out from Afghanistan: Hollande

KABUL: France’s new President Francois Hollande has announced that all French combat forces will pull out of Afghanistan by the end of the year. However some trainers will remain to help Afghanistan’s nascent security forces.
“There will be no combat troops” after the end of the year, Hollande said during a joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Hollande flew to Afghanistan to meet with troops and to discuss plans with Karzai to withdraw French combat troops more than a year earlier than scheduled. His visit was not announced ahead of time for security reasons, and he was expected to depart shortly after the news conference.
Hollande said that France will pull its 2,000 combat troops, out of a total of 3,300, out by the end of the year. Some would stay behind to help send military equipment back to France, and others would help train the Afghan army and police. He did not provide a breakdown for the roles of the 1,300 soldiers who will remain past 2012 or how long they would stay.
Hollande said that continued cooperation was discussed over lunch with Karzai “because there will continue to be trainers who will work with (Afghan) soldiers and police.”
He said French equipment would be taken out by ground routes, but did not say which ones.
Pakistan closed overland supply routes to Afghanistan for NATO after a US attack on the Pakistani side of the border killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November. The decision has forced NATO to use a far more costly route running through the north.
Talks to reopen the routes have been stuck over fees – Pakistan is demanding $5,000 per truck. The fee had been $250 a truck before the attack, and the United States, which is handling the talks, has countered with an offer of $500.
France has signed an agreement with Afghanistan that calls for cooperation after 2014. Other countries, including the United States, have signed similar accords.
“We want France to have a presence in Afghanistan differently from how it did in the past,” Hollande said. France wants to be “useful in a different way,” in economic and cultural matters, he said.
During an earlier meeting with French troops at a base in the Nijrab district of the eastern Kapisa province, Hollande said “several reasons justify this decision to withdraw our combat troops from Afghanistan.”
“The time for Afghan sovereignty has come,” he said. “The terrorist threat that targeted our territory, while it hasn’t totally disappeared, is in part lessened.”
Another reason “is that, simply, you have carried out your mission.”
“Thank you for what you have accomplished for France, what you are doing for Afghanistan,” Hollande told the troops before flying to Kabul to meet Karzai.
Hollande announced plans at a NATO summit this week to pull out French troops by the end of the year, well ahead of the alliance’s 2014 withdrawal date.
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