Sarkozy: One Millon Troops to Leave Afghanistan

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday that France will pull out 1,000 troops from Afghanistan by the beginning of 2013, as it speeds up its withdrawal with the USA.

Sarkozy, on an unannounced five-hour visit to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said rest of the soldiers would be based in Kapisa province. France has approximately four thousands soldiers in Afghanistan. “We will pull out a quarter of our contingent, which is about 1,000 soldiers, between now and the end of 2012,” Sarkozy said in a speech to French troops at a base near Kabul. Sarkozy’s visit followed a trip by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at the weekend and comes after the United States and France said in June that they would pull soldiers out earlier than expected from the nearly decade-old military campaign against Taliban insurgents.