CANBERRA, March 26 – The majority of Australian troops in Afghanistan will return home with their main military base at Tarin Kowt to be closed by the end of the year, Xinhua news agency reported. At present, Australia has some 1,550 troops in Afghanistan concentrated mostly in the Uruzgan province and at least 1,000 will be returning home in 2013.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had made the decision to close the Tarin Kowt base, the Australian principal base in Afghanistan and used by reconstruction, mentoring and special forces troops.
“After the base closure Australia will no longer have a permanent presence in Uruzgan,” he said.
From 2014, Australia will train 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 Officer Training Academy in Kabul.
Smith said Australia remained prepared to make a special forces contribution either for training or for counter-terrorism purposes.
Defence Force chief David Hurley said certain decisions remained pending on the further use of special forces in Afghanistan.
“Australian troops will continue to train and advise Afghan army forces and remain combat ready to assist if the need arises,” he said.
BERNAMA
