Sarkozy Meets Karzai: French Troops to Quit Afghanistan End-2013
French troops are to resume their training of Afghan soldiers after a week-long suspension due to a renegade Afghan soldier shooting dead four French troops, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday.
Sarkozy also said after talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that French combat troops would complete their withdrawal from the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2013.
France will transfer security in the eastern Kapisa province, where most of the current 3,600-strong French contingent is based, and the scene of the shooting, to Afghan forces from March of this year, Sarkozy said.
"The pursuit of the transition and this gradual transfer of combat responsibilities will allow us to plan for a return of all our combat forces by the end of 2013," Sarkozy said.
"A few hundred" French troops will stay on after 2013, to train Afghan troops, Sarkozy said.
Sarkozy also said he would "ask NATO to think about the Afghan army taking complete control of NATO combat missions during 2013."
Sarkozy said that 1,000 French troops would return in 2012. Last year, he said that 600 troops would come home this year.
The entirety of U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan are due to leave by the end of 2014.
Source: Agence France Presse
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