French combat troops to leave Afghanistan this year
By the end of the year, saying on Friday that he would leave about 1,400 soldiers behind to help with training and logistics.. The new French leader, making good on one of the major foreign-policy promises of his campaign, confirmed in a one-day visit to Afghanistan that all of France's 2,000 combat troops would be brought home by the end of this year -- putting France on a fast-track exit timetable that sparked consternation among some allies at a NATO summit in Chicago early this week.. Hollande's comments marked the first time that he had put an exact figure on the French deployment after the combat troops leave, suggesting that logistical necessities for France as well as its support for Afghanistan's hoped-for transition to peace will go well beyond the year-end target.. "The time for Afghan sovereignty has come," Hollande said during a meeting with French troops at a base in Kapisa province's Nijrab district.. The French leader, who took office last week, met with troops and discussed plans with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to withdraw French combat troops two years earlier than NATO's 2014 pullout schedule.. France now has 3,400 troops and 150 gendarmes in Afghanistan
