German defence minister visits troops in Afghanistan

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere arrived in northern Afghanistan on Thursday, two days after Afghan troops took formal control of the last 95 Afghan districts that had been controlled by troops of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). It's de Maiziere's 12th trip to the country in almost 28 months as defense minister; he most recently visited in tandem with Chancellor Angela Merkel in May. With a total handover of combat and security missions planned for the end of 2014, de Maiziere said that ermany would continue to provide military personnel after this date, setting the condition that there must be "a sustainable, reliable agreement on the troops' statute." According to the German DPA news agency, de Maiziere was to meet his Afghan and Italian counterparts Bismallah Khan Mohammadi and Giampaolo Di Paola during his stopover on Thursday. Most of the roughly 4,100 German troops currently serving in Afghanistan are based in Mazar-i-Sharif.