Australia to withdraw most troops from Afghanistan by year end

Australia announced its intention to withdraw most of its troops from Afghanistan at the end of this year and shut down a major base for NATO-led forces, handing security to Afghan soldiers and police.Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith said that Western and Afghan commanders had agreed that the major multinational coalition base at Tarin Kowt and its NATO airbase in Uruzgan province would close at the end of 2013.Most foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 under a planned security transition from foreign forces to Afghans.“It is a necessary and logical and natural consequence of transition being effective,” Smith said.The effect of that closure will be that Australia will no longer have a permanent presence in Uruzgan province, and the majority of Australian defence force personnel will return,” he added.Australia has around 1,650 troops in Afghanistan, including special forces, based mainly in volatile Uruzgan, and was an original member of the US-led coalition that helped oust the former Taliban government in late 2001.