French participation in the war in Afghanistan

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France has been heavily involved in Western intervention in Afghanistan since 2001 . The French armed forces were part of both the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom (Operations EPIDOTE and Heracles) and the ISAF mission (Operation Pamir). In July 2011, France had around 4,000 soldiers in action, and around 1,000 soldiers should be withdrawn by the end of 2012. After the change of government in 2012, the new President François Hollande announced the full withdrawal by the end of 2012.

commitment

As of June 9, 2012, 86 soldiers from the French armed forces had died in Afghanistan.

Some military operations with French involvement are:

history

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , the Council of Ministers, led by President Jacques Chirac, decided on October 3, 2001 to participate in the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom . With the French Operation Héraclès, the dispatch of the frigate Courbet and the supply ship Var, France participated in a US operation in the northern Indian Ocean ( Arabian Sea ). On December 1, a task force of the French Navy, Task Force 473 , arrived in the area of ​​operations with the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle , three frigates, a submarine and other ships. In March 2002, French fighter jets attacked targets in Afghanistan from the aircraft carrier for the first time. Other aircraft were stationed at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan from February to October 2002 , including six Dassault Mirage 2000s and some Boeing KC-135s (tanker aircraft). Marines were deployed in Mazar-i Sharif in November and December 2001 . From December 2002 there was an agreement with Tajikistan to station French air forces there, for example for air transport.

From July 2004 to January 2005, the Kabul Multi National Brigade was under the command of the Franco-German Brigade , led by German Major General Walter Spindler . On August 9, 2004 to February 11, 2005, on the instructions of the North Atlantic Council, around 450 soldiers of the Eurocorps under the command of French General Jean-Louis Py took over command of ISAF for one year.

Preparations for a relief operation in a school in Kapisa province, April 2007

In March 2007, France had 1,100 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan. The number of soldiers was increased in the following months, in December 2007 1,600 soldiers were under ISAF mandate and a total of 2,000 soldiers were stationed in Afghanistan. In April 2008 the number of soldiers rose from a total of 2,300 soldiers (1,700 under ISAF mandate) by a few hundred more soldiers.

June 12, 2008: An international Afghanistan conference took place in Paris. Large sums of money were promised: 6.6 billion euros from the USA and 8.6 billion euros from Saudi Arabia. France wanted to increase its aid to 107 million euros.

August 5, 2008: French Brigadier General Michel Stollsteiner takes over the capital regional command . At the same time, a battalion with 770 soldiers (BATFRA PAMIR) took over responsibility for the Surobi district to the east of Kabul, which is part of the Eastern Regional Command.

On August 18, 2008, formal security responsibility for Kabul passed to the Afghans. On the same day, French soldiers were ambushed in the Uzbin Valley, Surobi district, in which 10 French soldiers were killed and 21 other soldiers were injured. In France, meant that the military could bring requested military material to Afghanistan as unmanned aerial vehicles and wheeled tank -mounted remote controlled weapon stations . The first unmanned aerial vehicles arrived in November. On August 20, Nicolas Sarkozy visited the soldiers in Kabul.

On September 22, 2008, the National Assembly decided with 343 votes to 210 to continue the French engagement in Afghanistan. More military equipment is to be brought to Afghanistan.

January 13, 2009: Three Dassault Rafale were relocated to Kandahar . In March 2009, French soldiers launched an offensive in Kapisa province . In July 2009, eight CAESAR artillery pieces mounted on trucks will be moved to Afghanistan.

On October 31, 2009, the leadership of the capital regional command was handed over to Turkey and the next day a regrouping of the French forces in Afghanistan began. The new military focus was on missions in the Kapisa province and in the east of the neighboring province of Kabul ( Sarobi district ).

The Task Force La Fayette (TFLF) came into being after the reorganization on November 1, 2009. It comprised around 2500 soldiers. The headquarters were in Kapisa Province . The La Fayette Brigade was responsible for Kapisa Province and Sarobi District and is subordinate to the US-led Regional Command East. It consisted of the combat group Korrigan (GTIA Kapisa = Groupement tactique interarmes de Kapisa) and the combat group Dragon (GTIA Surobi = Groupement tactique interarmes de Surobi)

On January 20, an Afghan soldier shot dead four French soldiers and injured 16 other people in Kapisa province. As a result, President Nicolas Sarkozy stopped all combat and training missions in support of the Afghan National Army. Defense Minister Gérard Longuet flew to Afghanistan. The Afghan soldier who started the crime was sentenced to death in July 2012.

Several paratroopers were killed and injured in a series of attacks in Midi-Pyrénées in March 2012. The assassin cited the French army's mission in Afghanistan as one of the reasons.

Responsibility for security in Kapisa province was transferred from France to Afghanistan on July 4, 2012. The withdrawal of French troops began on the instructions of President François Hollande in July 2012. In December 2012, the withdrawal of combat troops was completed. The remaining 1,500 French military personnel will be reduced to 500 by summer 2013.

Miscellaneous

Training of Afghan security forces

Operation Epidote lasted from May 1, 2002 to 2006, during which officers of the Afghan National Army (ANA) were trained. From August 2006, five Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams (OMLT) were set up to train parts of the 201st Corps stationed near Kabul. In August 2008, an OMLT with the 205th Corps of the ANA was taken over by the Dutch to relieve the Dutch soldiers in the province of Uruzgan . In the winter of 2009/2010 four Police Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams (POMLT) were set up in the Kapisa province and in the neighboring Sarobi district of the Kabul province to train the Afghan National Police there .

In May 2007 the Afghan Commando School opened to train Afghan soldiers to become special soldiers. The instructors come from the United States, United Arab Emirates and France.

France provides police officers from the European Gendarmerie Force to train the Afghan National Police .

G8 summit in Évian-les-Bains 2003

In the run-up to the G8 summit in Évian-les-Bains (France) in June 2003, President Chirac is said to have agreed to move 200 special forces from the Commandement des opérations spéciales to the south of Afghanistan (Opération Arès). Initially they were stationed in the border region with Pakistan to support the search for bin Laden. In December 2006 the soldiers were withdrawn.

On May 21 and 22, 2003, at a conference chaired by France, 55 countries agreed to take measures against the transport of opium and heroin from Afghanistan (“Paris Pact”). There was a follow-up conference on June 26-28, 2006 in Russia.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ stol.it: Paris wants to withdraw around 1000 soldiers from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, July 12, 2011 ( Memento from April 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ icasualties.org: France
  3. ↑ defense.gov: Allied Contributions to the Common Defense - 2003
  4. ↑ troupesdemarine.org: 21eme Régiment d'Infanterie de Marine
  5. ^ Diplomatie.gouv.fr: France and Tajikistan pointillés
  6. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: botschaft-frankreich.de: France's contribution to ISAF in Afghanistan, March 2, 2007 )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.botschaft-frankreich.de  
  7. ↑ rpfrance-otan.org: Les forces françaises en Afghanistan: quelque 1.600 hommes, December 22, 2008 ( Memento of December 3, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )}
  8. ^ Zeit.de: Paris conference calls for "Afghanization" of reconstruction, June 12, 2008
  9. ^ Deutsche Welle: Heavy blow against the French military, August 19, 2008
  10. ^ Strategypage.com: Caesar Rolls Into Afghanistan
  11. ↑ FAZ: After the attack on ISAF - France initially stops combat operations in Afghanistan
  12. ^ Zeit.de: Afghan soldier sentenced to death for killing French people
  13. ^ Zeit.de: France hands over responsibility in Kapisa province to Afghans
  14. ↑ BBC News: French troop pullout from Afghanistan to start in July, June 9, 2012
  15. ^ Zeit.de: The French leave Afghanistan for good, December 16, 2012
  16. ^ Ministry of Defense of France: Chronology 2001 to 2009
  17. ↑ npr.org: US Troops Train Afghans To Take Their Place, August 2008
  18. ↑ opex360.com: Le rôle des forces spéciales françaises dans la traque de Ben Laden, May 4, 2011
  19. ^ Paris Pact