Ending 2013: Australians leaving Afghanistan …
- December 17th, 2013
- Posted by EU Australia
The main Australian force has pulled out of Afghanistan shutting down its base at Tarin Kot in Uruzgan province.
The commitment as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had 1500 personnel in diverse roles; the main body ending its time as a mentoring force for Afghan army units.
More than 400 are expected to stay on for an unknown time, being Special Forces and other troops in training or support roles.
Forty Australians were killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of the commitment against the Taliban insurgency in 2001, with more than 260 wounded.
The commitment was conceived as a move to deny bases to international terrorist groups; it accompanied extensive civil aid work, on health care, schools or roads; it contributed to holding down Taliban operations, and assisting in the build-up of Afghan forces.
The Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, said the withdrawal on this date put an effective end to the country’s war in Afghanistan; and had been “worth it”.
Elected on 7.9.13, the Prime Minister was marking one hundred days in office.
The Afghanistan move had been foreshadowed by his predecessor, the Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Other actions since taking office have seen the new government rescinding a range of initiatives of the former government, including a legislative process to scrap taxes on carbon emissions and excess profits from mining.
Reference
Defence Department, Canberra; “AustrAustralian Defence Force completes mission in Uruzgan”, 16.12.13. http://www.defence.gov.au/defencenews/stories/2013/dec/1216a.htm, (16.12.13).
Pictures ADF