UK to pull 500 troopers out of Afghanistan

Hammond made the announcements in a statement to the House of Commons with the British lawmakers voicing their concern about the dangers British troops continue to face.

Since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, 409 British soldiers have died. Moreover, a Mirror investigation said there were 9,000 hidden victims of war as an increasing number of British troops suffer from mental health trauma returning from Afghanistan.

Last year in August, the Taliban attacked the British Council building in Kabul to mark the anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence from Britain saying, “We want to remind the British that we won our independence from them before and we will do it again”.

Furthermore, earlier this month, two rockets hit a guard tower in the British embassy in Kabul and a rocket-propelled grenade landed outside the residence of British diplomats. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Currently, there are 9,500 British troops in Afghanistan. The British government is to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by 2014. However, anti-war activists have called for an immediate withdrawal of troops and an end to the occupation of the country.

“We don’t have the blood to spare and we certainly don’t have the treasure to spare in Britain to be going around the world occupying other people’s countries and having our young men come back in boxes”, said British MP George Galloway after his landslide victory in a parliamentary by-election last month.

ISH/GHN/HE

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