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| Afghanistan |
| France to withdraw troops from Afghanistan |
| 2011-07-12 |
| French president Nicolas Sarkozy says France will withdraw a quarter of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year. Mr Sarkozy is in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit and has travelled to a French military base in the north-eastern province of Kapisa to announce France will withdraw 1,000 troops. France has about 4,000 troops deployed in the country, mostly in Sarobi, Kabul, and in north-eastern Kapisa province. "It's necessary to end the war," Mr Sarkozy told journalists at the base. "There was never a question of keeping troops in Afghanistan indefinitely." Only until we defeated the Taliban, Nick... Mr Sarkozy was scheduled to meet his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and US commander General David Petraeus after his trip to the base. France's decision follows similar announcements by Britain and the United States, as Western leaders look to a final deadline of the end of 2014 to extract all combat troops from the conflict. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 both of them? |
| Posted by: jack salami 2011-07-12 11:08 |