Germany Considers Extending Afghanistan Troop Deployment for One Year

With a possible boost from 850 to 980 personnel, the non-combat mission advising Afghanistan's national security force could stay until the end of 2016, Der Spiegel magazine reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Germany may extend its 13-year mission in Afghanistan for another year to maintain support for local security forces in the country’s north, local media reported.

The Federal Republic's government has agreed on the need to prolong the Bundeswehr's 850-strong presence in North Afghanistan's Camp Marmal base at Mazar-i-Sharif, Germany's largest base abroad, Der Spiegel magazine said on Wednesday.

With a possible boost from 850 to 980 personnel, the non-combat mission advising Afghanistan's national security force could stay until the end of 2016, the magazine reported.

The extension was suggested after the Taliban made its largest advance in years, seizing the 300,000-large provincial capital Kunduz in late September after months of fighting between the militants and the Afghan army.

United States President Barack Obama recently announced maintaining a US military presence in the country into 2017, despite earlier plans to leave in late 2016. According to the new plan, the 9,800 member US contingent will stay in Afghanistan throughout 2016 and be halved in 2017.

NATO and US forces announced an end to their Afghanistan combat operation in 2014, leaving limited military personnel to support Afghanistan's national security forces. The most recent in a long series of wars in Afghanistan began in 2001, when a US-led invasion of the country toppled the Taliban. According to the US government, over 1,500 US troops have died in the incursion. Bundeswehr data puts German casualties in Afghanistan at 54.