By Ankit Panda
After a 13 year presence in the country, U.S. Marines and U.K. forces ended their combat operations in Afghanistan.
This weekend, U.S. Marines and British forces in Afghanistan formally ended their combat operations in Afghanistan. The event was sealed with the formal transfer of two military bases in Afghanistan’s Helmand province to the Afghan National Army’s 215th corps. The two camps, Bastion and Leatherneck, were both used by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to stabilize Helmand and Nimroz provinces as part of Regional Command Southwest, an ISAF administrative region. According to reports, remaining U.S. Marines and British forces in Helmand will maintain security for the two former NATO facilities through the end of the year.
NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan will withdraw completely from the country by the end of this year. A small contingent troop presence will stay on in Afghanistan to train members of the Afghan National Army and to conduct limited counter-terrorism operations under the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) and Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed at the end of September with the new Afghan government under President Ashraf Ghani.
Read the full story at The Diplomat