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Norway troops to leave Afghanistan in 2013

Norway will withdraw most of its troops from Afghanistan in 2013, a year before the bulk of NATO's forces, Norwegian Defence Minister Espen Barth Eide announced on Monday.

Published: 5 December 2011 17:03 CET
Norway troops to leave Afghanistan in 2013
Photo: Forsvarets Mediesenter/Lars Kroek

The country plans to hand over command of the northern Faryab province to Afghan security forces by the summer of 2012 and expects to withdraw its contingent from the provincial capital Maimana a year later, the minister said.

"It will not be a dramatic transfer done overnight," he told public broadcaster NRK during a visit to Afghanistan's northern capital Mazar-i-Sharif where other Norwegian troops are stationed.

Norway currently has some 500 troops in Afghanistan, including more than 300 tasked with security missions in Faryab while the remainder work with command and logistical issues in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul.

"After the withdrawal, some soldiers will remain in Mazar-i-Sharif to train and advise" the Afghan forces, Barth Eide told Norwegian news agency NTB.

The announcement came as an international conference opened in Bonn on the future of Afghanistan after the departure of NATO forces at the end of 2014.

Ten Norwegian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since international forces invaded in late 2001 to remove the Taliban regime.

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AFGHANISTAN

Spain starts evacuating Afghan employees via Pakistan

Spain was on Monday evacuating via Pakistan Afghan helpers left behind when western forces quit Kabul, a government source confirmed on condition of anonymity.

Published: 11 October 2021 15:58 CEST
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)

The government source declined to give any details of the move, citing security concerns.

But Spanish media, including daily El País and National Radio, reported that Madrid would bring close to 250 Afghan citizens, who had already crossed into Pakistan and would be flown out on military transport planes.

The first flight was expected to arrive on Monday evening.

Spain’s evacuations have been weeks in the making, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares visiting Pakistan and Qatar in early September to lay the groundwork.

Madrid evacuated over 2,000 people, most of them Afghans who had worked for Spain and their families, during the western withdrawal as the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August.

But the flights had to stop once the final American troops that had been protecting the Afghan capital’s airport left.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in August that Spain would not “lose interest in the Afghans who had remained” in their country but wanted to leave.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, on Friday urged the bloc’s member states to host a “minimum” of between 10,000 and 20,000 more Afghan refugees.

“To welcome them, we have to evacuate them, and we’re getting down to it, but it’s not easy,” he said in Madrid.

The EU has said a demand by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to take in 42,500 Afghan refugees over five years can be achieved — although any decision lies with member states.

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