Washington’s European allies that followed the US into the disastrous war in Afghanistan have already pulled most of their troops out of the country, including Germany, which had the second-largest presence in Afghanistan next to the US.
Germany had about 1,100 troops in Afghanistan when the drawdown began in May. Last week, Germany’s Defense Ministry said around 570 troops were still in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, Germany announced that the last of its troops had left and its occupation of Afghanistan has ended.
Italy also declared on Wednesday that its withdrawal from Afghanistan was complete, and the last of Poland’s troops in the country returned home. According to Sky News, the UK has pulled out the majority of the 750 troops it had in Afghanistan.
Before the drawdown started, there were about 7,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan. Based on an analysis of the different countries’ announcements on the withdrawals, The Associated Press estimates about 4,800 non-American troops have left.
NATO followed the US and began its withdrawal with the goal of being out by September 11th, and most of the alliance’s troops were expected to leave by July 4th. Multiple media reports say Washington is just days away from completing its formal withdrawal, but that plan involves anywhere between 650 to 1,000 US troops to stay behind and guard the US embassy and the airport in Kabul.
While countries are announcing their withdrawals are complete, there’s always a chance that Western special operations forces could maintain an undeclared presence in Afghanistan. According to recently discovered classified British documents, the US asked the UK to leave special operations troops behind after the formal withdrawal.