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Spot the difference.
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 7:46 pm
by Samray
No!
Not that one.
Hundreds of British troops in Afghanistan yesterday swept into Kandahar province as part of the biggest operation against the Taliban heartland in months.
A column of 200 vehicles containing 500 soldiers and Royal Marines advanced across the border under cover of darkness from neighbouring Helmand province, where UK forces have been concentrated up until now, with orders to help Canadian troops push back Taliban insurgents gathering for a fresh offensive against the allies.
PARIS (AP) - France is to withdraw its 200-strong special forces from Afghanistan, all of its ground troops engaged in the U.S anti-terror operation there, authorities announced Sunday.
France has balked at sending its 1,100-strong NATO contingent outside the relatively safe Afghan capital, Kabul.
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 7:52 pm
by Kwackerz
CESMs pulling out?
Saying that, they have been quite devastating with their application of fire upon the Enemy. When they do go outside the wire.
I seem to recall they were going to send in Helicopter support, or at least lend out Helis to other forces engaged in combat in the area, although I dont recall having seen them in theatre
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:11 pm
by Samray
Tbf I think their air support remains, or even increases.
I remember their eurofighter substitute going into the arena, and now more choppers.
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:03 pm
by Kwackerz
PARIS (Reuters) - France has decided to pull its special forces out of Afghanistan after a NATO-led stabilisation force extended operations to the whole country, the French defense ministry said on Sunday.
The contingent of 200 elite troops, operating under U.S. command near the Pakistan border, will be withdrawn at the beginning of 2007, a spokesman said.
The announcement coincides with a visit to Afghanistan by Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who told French radio it was part of a wider reorganization of foreign troops.
France is part of a 32,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, which took over command of a war against the Taliban from U.S.-led forces in October and has launched a series of military offensives.
France's special forces had been deployed in 2003 to bolster Operation Enduring Freedom, a separate U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda launched in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"We are reorganizing our presence because ISAF has spread across the country and so we are also making a change, which is to withdraw our special forces from Jalalabad," Alliot-Marie told France Info radio.
She said France would instead step up training of the Afghan army, particularly its special forces.
Some 1,100 French troops will remain in the region of Kabul as part of the ISAF, the French defense ministry spokesman said.
Ten French troops have been killed since the conflict in Afghanistan started in October 2001. The majority belonged to the special forces unit based in the eastern city of Jalalabad.