Monitoring Desk
KABUL: German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said that the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan had taken place too quickly, a media report said.
Addressing German troops in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province, she said the ISAF was too hasty in its withdrawal from the country.
According to the international news outlet, she voiced little hope that the conflict there would end anytime soon.
“I haven’t forgotten how it was at the beginning when we got out …too quickly with too big a reduction in troop numbers (in 2014),” she said, stressing that it was plain to everyone that there was still ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.
“There’s still a lot to do but I’m convinced that we’re going in the right direction with our mission there,” von der Leyen added.
She said that the Afghan army would still need support and training from coalition troops for some time.
“We’ll need to have a lot of stamina — Afghanistan will occupy us for a long time yet.”
German Bundeswehr troops have been in the country for 16 years in the wake of a US-led invasion in 2001 as part of Washington’s “war on terror” following the September 11 attacks.
The mission is the largest Bundeswehr deployment ever, and also the one that has involved the most losses.
Currently, some 1,000 German soldiers have remained on in the country, mainly to train Afghan forces.
ANA still needs coalition support: The German defence minister says the Afghan National Army (ANA) still needs support and training from the US-led coalition troops.
“We’ll need to have a lot of stamina — Afghanistan will occupy us for a long time yet,” Ursula von der Leyen said during her sixth visit to Camp Marmal in Mazar-i-Sharif.
DPA quoted her as saying the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan had taken place too quickly. It was pretty clear the conflict in Afghanistan was ongoing, she added.
Germany has about 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, training Afghan security forces within the framework of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission.
Last week, the German parliament voted to prolong the country’s mission to Afghanistan by three months.
