# French Special Forces to be pulled from Afghanistan



## old fart (17 Dec 2006)

French SF to be withdrawn from Eastern Afghanistan.  But this is not to be viewed as downscale the French MOD states!!!!!!

Source, BBC Radio 3PM  17 Dec newscast. A quick google will verify.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6187921.stm

http://www.thenews.com.pk/update_detail.asp?id=14702


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## Kilo_302 (17 Dec 2006)

> France will withdraw its 200 special forces troops from Afghanistan within weeks, authorities announced Sunday.
> 
> The elite soldiers have been serving under U.S. forces in the southeast, battling Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
> 
> ...





http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/12/17/afghanistan-france.html


Do you guys buy the  "reorganization of our troops" argument?


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## tomahawk6 (17 Dec 2006)

The French SF may be needed in Chad or Lebanon.


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## The Rifleman (18 Dec 2006)

I doubt they will need 200 SF in the Leb - a few teams maybe - its not a full scale offensive operation


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## The Rifleman (18 Dec 2006)

Possible - but as its peace enforcing in Darfur a normal brigade set up is the norm with possibly a few SF teams attached for STA, close obs & int gathering.

I find it curious that France had 200 SF in theatre - the SAS/SBS  would only have roughly 60. Maybe its just the media calling para or commado trained troops SF by mistake. In the UK I've often heard of units being labled "Elite" wrongly - like mechanics or logistics units - or even the RAF Regiment!


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