France to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by year end

PARIS, Dec 19 (KUNA) -- France is to withdraw all remaining troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, ending a 13-year deployment with international forces there that began in 2001, the Defence Ministry announced Friday in a briefing.
France was the first country to offer troops after an American-led invasion of Afghanistan in retaliation for the September 11 attacks against the US in 2001, when 3,000 people were killed after several planes were hijacked by Al-Qaida and two were crashed into the Twin Towers of the Trade Centre in New York.
The US justified the invasion by the presence in Afghanistan of Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden and his supporters who claimed responsibility for the "9/11" attacks Bin Laden was killed several years later in Pakistan by a US Special Forces operation.
France deployed 4,000 troops in Afghanistan at the height of its mission there, supported by attack aircraft and helicopters and an aircraft carrier sporadically off the coast of Pakistan.
Initially, all foreign forces were due to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but France decided unilaterally to carry out its own withdrawal of all combat troops at the end of 2012, two years ahead of the NATO-International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) schedule.
Several hundred French troops were left in Afghanistan for logistics purposes and for training the Afghan army to fight still active Taleban militants.
Only around 150 French troops remain in Afghanistan today and they will leave before the end of December, the Defence Ministry said.
France lost 89 troops in the 13-year period, both in combat and due to other incidents and several hundred were wounded. Close to 11,000 US forces are due to stay in Afghanistan in a support mission for the Afghan security forces after an agreement with the Kabul government. (End) jk.ajs