France suspends joint operations in Afghanistan; contemplates withdrawal

France suspends joint operations in Afghanistan; contemplates withdrawal

Paris: (Friday, January 20, 2012) French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that after the death of four of its troops in the hands of an Afghan soldier, France has decided to suspend all its training and joint operations in Afghanistan
and has started to contemplate on an early withdrawal.

Sarkozy, while dispatching his Defence Minister Gerard Longuet to Afghanistan, Sarkozy said, “The French army is alongside its allies but we cannot accept that a single one of our soldiers be wounded or killed by our allies, it’s
unacceptable.”

Longuet will be joined by France’s chief of army staff Admiral Edouard Guillaud to establish the circumstances which caused deaths of 4 French soldiers besides leaving other 16 wounded.

Announcing to halt all operations and trainings in Afghanistan, Sarkozy said, “Between now and then all training, joint combat operations by the French army are suspended. If security conditions are not clearly established, then
the question of an early return of the French army will be asked.”

About 3,600 French soldiers have been deployed in Afghanistan along with the NATO forces and their bases are generally situated in Kabul and Kapisa provinces.

After the incident which caused deaths of four French army men, French troops have surrounded their base in the eastern province and are not letting any Afghan soldiers to go in.

Hinting towards taking difficult decision of withdrawing his forces from Afghanistan in the coming days, the French president said, “We will have to take a difficult decision in the coming days. But I must assume my responsibilities
before the French people and before our soldiers.”

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Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Jan 20 2012. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry