Friday 24 January 2020

French soldiers killed in Taliban attack

Kabul, June 9, 2012

A suicide bomber dressed in a burqa blew himself up near a French patrol in Afghanistan on Saturday, killing four soldiers and wounding five as the Taliban step up a spring offensive.

The attack - one of the deadliest on the French contingent in months - occurred in the mountainous Kapisa province in the east of the country, an area mainly patrolled by a French force under Nato command.

"It was an unfortunate incident. There was a patrol of coalition soldiers in a small bazaar and they were attacked by a suicide bomber wearing a burqa," Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told Reuters.

French President Francois Hollande restated his plan to withdraw all combat troops from Afghanistan by end-2012, well before Nato allies, as he offered condolences to the victims' families.

"This operation will start in July and be finished by the end of 2012," Hollande, who took office in mid-May, said as he visited his political fiefdom 500 km south of Paris on the eve of a parliamentary election.


Until Saturday's incident, 83 French soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan since the US-led military intervention began in 2001, the fourth highest number of military deaths by nation, behind the US, Britain and Canada.




Last month Hollande, during a visit to the volatile Kapisa province days after he took over the presidency, defended the decision to pull some 2,000 combat troops out early, saying the job of fighting terrorism was nearly done, and France would focus on cooperating on the civilian front.



Tags: Afghanistan | Taliban | attack | killed | French soldiers |


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