Germany withdraws troops from Afghanistan after 20 years

Germany on Tuesday withdrew troops from war-torn Afghanistan after two decades. The United States will also withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by September 11.

German Defense Minister said in a statement, “Our last troops in almost 20 years have left Afghanistan tonight (Tuesday) and are on their way home,”. This is the end of a historical chapter.

In mid-April, NATO and US President Joe Biden announced that 10,000 foreign troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 11. This activity has started on 1st May.

The German military says, all its troops are returning from Afghanistan. There is no other German army there. However, for security reasons, they did not provide any details. In all, Germany had 1,100 troops in Afghanistan. The withdrawal of troops began in May.

German troops arrived in Afghanistan in January 2002. The German military was first told that it was not their job to fight the Taliban, it was their job to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan. In all, about 1.5 million German troops have gone to Afghanistan. Many have been there more than once. It has cost 1,250 crore euros to manage their costs. At least 59 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

The terrorist group Al-Qaeda carried out a terrorist attack in the United States on September 11, 2001. About three thousand people were killed in that attack. The United States and NATO have since launched an offensive in Afghanistan to crack down on Al-Qaeda-backed Taliban militants.

The operation toppled the country’s then-Taliban government but did not eliminate the Taliban completely.