NATO-led troops quit last base in Kunar

ASADABAD (Pajhwok):  Transferring their last base to Afghan counterparts, NATO-led foreign troops have pulled out from eastern Kunar province, the provincial police chief said on Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Abdul Habib Syedkhel told Pajhwok Afghan News the international forces had only shifted equipment they needed from the base and left behind other office tools, buildings, vehicles and allied stuff.

He said the facility had already been used as police headquarters and currently national police and intelligence officials were stationed in the once largest ISAF base in Topchi area.

To protect the decade-old base, 10 security posts have been established in mountainous areas near Asadabad, the provincial capital, where the situation had been satisfactory due to the base. Now Afghan forces have been deployed to the posts.

Syedkhel said Afghan forces maintained good coordination and there would be no problem with regard to security after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Kunar.

He said Afghan forces had the ability to conduct operations on their own without support from foreign forces.

Residents said they were happy with the pullout but it rendered many Afghans jobless. A resident of Asadabad, Subhan, said about 500 Afghans had been working at the NATO base and now they were jobless.

Another resident, Abdul Jalal, said the Americans were good for nothing because they did not act to stop Pakistani forces from firing rockets into Kunar over the past four years.

ma/mud