For France, the combat mission in Afghanistan has ended. France pulled the last of its combat troops from the region.

With the withdrawal of the last 500 combat troops from the Kapisa Province, the security of the region is in the hands of the Afghan Security Forces that is 4,700 strong and supported by 250 American troops.

France, the fifth-largest NATO contributor of forces to the region, will keep 1,500 troops in the country to help send their equipment back home as well as instruct and train Afghan Security Forces. They will remain there until sometime in 2013. France lost 88 members of its armed forces during their efforts in Afghanistan.

60 of those fatalities took place in the Kapisa Province. Two of the six districts in that province are still believed to be under the control f the insurgents.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy decided to pull his country’s troops from Afghanistan by 2013 after a string of deadly attacks in 2011 and 2012. Sarcozy’s successor, Francais Hollande, further accelerated the troops return, setting the end of 2012 as the date of their re-deployment home.