Australia to withdraw most troops from Afghanistan in 2013

Most of Australian troops in Afghanistan will return home and their main military base at Tarin Kowt in Afghanistan will be closed by the end of this year, Defence Minister Stephen Smith announced here on Tuesday.

Australia has some 1,550 troops in Afghanistan now, most in Uruzgan province. At least 1,000 will return to Australia by the end of 2013, Smith told reporters.

According to him, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had made the decision to close the Tarin Kowt base.

This base is the principal Australian base in Afghanistan and is used by both reconstruction, mentoring and special forces troops.

"The effect of that closure will be that Australia will no longer have a permanent presence in Uruzgan, and the majority of Australian permanent presence Defence Force personnel will return from Afghanistan to Australia," he said.

From 2014, Australia will train, advise and assist the Afghan national security forces by continuing to provide embedded headquarters staff, advisers at the Corps level and trainers at the Afghan National Army (ANA) Officer Training Academy in Kabul.

Source: ANTARA