Spain plans to send more troops to Afghanistan

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: The Defense Minister of Spain, María Dolores de Cospedal, agreed on to send more Spanish troops to Afghanistan. This she said while talking to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at presidential palace on Friday.

 Both the leaders discussed the Afghanistan’s security situation and matter of mutual interest. Afghan Defense Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami and the Army Chief of Staff Brigadier General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali also attended the meeting.

 Presidential Palace issued a statement in this regard and according to it, Spanish minister said her country will continue its cooperation and support to Afghan Special Force under the Resolute Support mission and adding that the number of Spanish troops will increase in Afghanistan with the aim to train and focusing on building the capacity of Afghan National Defense and Security Force members.

Spain has so far sent in 29,861 troops to Afghanistan since January 2002. It has been the longest military operation of Spain’s modern armed forces, with a tragic result of 102 dead (62 of them in an aircraft crash in Turkey while they were going back home in May 2003).