Four French troops killed by Afghan soldier

PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday suspended French military training operations in Afghanistan and said he was mulling an early withdrawal after a renegade Afghan soldier shot dead four French troops.

“The French army stands alongside its allies but we cannot accept that a single one of our soldiers be wounded or killed by our allies, it’s unacceptable,” Sarkozy said, dispatching Defence Minister Gerard Longuet to Afghanistan.

Longuet and army chief of staff Admiral Edouard Guillaud will establish the circumstances of Friday’s shooting in which an Afghan soldier opened fire on French troops, killing four and wounding eight, before he was arrested.

“Between now and then all training and joint combat operations by the French army are suspended,” Sarkozy said. “If security conditions are not clearly established, then the question of an early return of the French army will be asked.”

Training Afghan forces and accompanying them into battle against rebels is the core of the French mission within the Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan, the force having already scaled down its own operations.

France has about 3,600 soldiers serving in the country, mainly in the provinces of Kabul and Kapisa, the scene of Friday’s shooting. Their deployment is deeply unpopular in France, and Sarkozy is facing a tough re-election battle in less than three months.

French troops have fanned out around their base in the eastern province and are not allowing any Afghan soldiers to approach, a security source told AFP. Longuet said that eight soldiers were wounded in the attack, including one seriously, revising down an initial wounded toll of 16.

“We will have to make a difficult decision in the coming days. But I must assume my responsibilities before the French people and before our soldiers,” Sarkozy said. The French force currently in Afghanistan will be reduced to 3,000 by late 2012, with 200 due to leave in March. Nato is due to hand security over to Afghan forces before withdrawing all its combat troops by the end of 2014.

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday expressed his condolences after the shooting, but insisted the attack was isolated. “This is a sad day for our troops in Afghanistan and the French people,” Rasmussen told reporters during a visit to fellow Nato member Latvia.

“Such tragic incidents are terrible and grab headlines but they are isolated,” he said, noting that 130,000 Nato-led international forces are still serving alongside more than 300,000 Afghans. The latest deaths brought to 82 the number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan since French forces deployed there at the end of 2001.