Bulgaria begins troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

The Bulgarian government on Wednesday said it had decided to withdraw some 40 percent of the country's 600-member contingent in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) stationed in Afghanistan within the first half of 2013. The withdrawal of Bulgarian medical team from the city of Herat has begun on Dec. 31, 2012, and the country's contingent based in Kabul and the team of instructors will be pulled out starting from 1 March and 31 March respectively. Bulgaria's 358-member contingent guarding Kandahar Airport will return home at the end of 2014, and only adviser teams will stay in Afghanistan after 2015, the government said in a press release. Bulgaria, which joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 2004, has been participating in the NATO-led ISAF mission since 2002.