Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: The UK is expected to bring home the last of its troops in Afghanistan this weekend, which would bring an end to Britain’s official role in the 20-year conflict.
According to reports, the final 750 soldiers, who are currently part of a NATO training mission, are said to have leave (Sunday 4 July).
Speaking to The Guardian, defense sources said that the training mission is to be completed ‘in the next few days’, before formal announcements are made.
Despite not wanting to give away exact dates, two military sources indicated to the publication that British forces were due out by 4 July, with the RAF rescheduling flights to complete the evacuation process.
The UK’s exit from the country has been organized to match the departure of US forces, which have been slogging to complete their withdrawal on 4 July – Independence Day weekend.
This comes after US President Joe Biden said back in April that it was ‘time to end America’s longest war’. Around 650 of the country’s troops are expected to stay to protect the US embassy.
Last month Germany and Italy declared their missions in Afghanistan over, bringing their deployments to a low-key end.
Announcements from several countries show that a majority of European troops have now left with little ceremony, bringing the Western mission in Afghanistan close to an end as the United States’ own withdrawal looms.
Germany publicly announced the end of its nearly 20-year deployment in a statement and a series of tweets from the defense minister, shortly after the last plane carrying its troops had left Afghan airspace.
