ISTANBUL - Turkish peacekeepers will remain in Afghanistan's capital Kabul until at least November 2013 after the military agreed to extend its mandate as part of a NATO force by a year, the Turkish military said on Thursday.
Turkish soldiers took over the Kabul regional command as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in November 2009. The military said in a statement that mission had been extended for a year from Nov. 1, 2012.The war in Afghanistan, which has failed to defeat the Taliban after more than a decade of fighting, has strained budgets and lost public support in Western nations.
