Australia to exit Afghanistan a year early-media

CANBERRA: Australia
will start withdrawing
troops from Afghanistan
this year and complete the
pull-out by mid-2013, a
year earlier than planned
and just before an expected
election which Prime Minister
Julia Gillard is forecast
to lose, media said.
Gillard will take her timetable
for the troop withdrawal
to the NATO conference
on Afghanistan to
be held in Chicago in May,
the Sydney Morning Herald
newspaper said today. ‘I am
now confi dent that Chicago
will recognise mid-2013 as
a key milestone in the international
strategy,’ the newspaper
quoted extracts from
Gillard’s speech as saying.
‘A crucial point when the
international forces will be
able to move to a supporting
role across all of Afghanistan.’
U.S. President
Barack Obama and other
NATO leaders are expected
to defi ne more clearly Western
withdrawal plans at the
Chicago conference and
outline measures to ensure
Afghanistan does not collapse
into civil war when
foreign troops go home.
A major assault in Kabul
by the Taliban this week
has raised questions about
whether Afghan forces will
be able to control security
after foreign troops withdraw.
More than 10 years
after the Taliban government
was toppled following
the September 11 attacks
in 2001, the U.S. administration
appears settled on a
steady withdrawal of most
of its troops by the end of
2014, leaving only a small
U.S. force to advise Afghan
forces and conduct targeted
strikes against militants.
French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, who is facing a diffi
cult re-election campaign,
has announced he would
pull French troops out of
Afghanistan by the end of
2013. US forces number
about 90,000 among the
130,000-strong NATO-led
force. France has 3,600
troops in Afghanistan and
Britain 9,500. Australia has
around 1,550 troops in Afghanistan.
With 32 Australian soldiers
killed and hundreds
wounded, the government
is under mounting pressure
to withdraw troops. Gillard,
who according to opinion
polls is facing defeat at the
next election due by the end
of 2013, will announce the
troop withdrawal in a speech
later on Tuesday, media said.
The Prime Minister’s offi
ce declined to comment
before Gillard delivers the
speech.