Spanish armed forces withdraw from Herat

USPA NEWS - The Spanish armed forces have started to withdraw the contingent deployed at the base in Herat (Afghanistan), which will bring to an end the Spanish presence in Herat within the framework of NATO's Resolute Support mission, authorised by the Lower House of Spanish Parliament on December 18, 2014.

The troops currently present in Herat consist of a force to protect the base and the airport in the city, air force personnel tasked with operations at the airport, healthcare personnel working for the Role 2E hospital, and a logistics unit that dealt with the needs of the troops deployed, as well as the personnel from the General Headquarters of the Train, Advise Assist Command-West. In order to repatriate the Spanish troops deployed in Herat, three flights have been chartered, of which two have already been deployed, to bring a total of 570 military personnel back to Spain from the base in Herat.

As regards the material, an operation has been planned which, on a similar basis to that carried out for the withdrawal from Badghis province in 2013, will employ various routes to transport the material to be brought back to Spain. The schedule for the withdrawal, which involves transporting close on 2,000 tonnes of material from Afghanistan to Spain, includes the following movements between 12 and 27 October:

Eleven direct flights by IL-76 cargo planes between Herat and Torrejon air bases; a shuttle service between Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates, with 23 flights by cargo places (IL-76 and AN-124) to transport vehicles and material for their subsequent embarkation in a RO-RO vessel at the port of Jebel Ali (UAE) en route to Castellon, and two land convoys to transport some 70 containers via Pakistan for their subsequent embarkation in a container ship from the port of Karachi to Spain.

In relation to infrastructures and the rest of the material from the base in Herat that will not be brought back, Spain has offered to donate them to the authorities of the Government of Afghanistan. These infrastructures and other material comprise a living area: accommodation facilities (including for refugees), canteen, sports facilities; a health area: Role 2E hospital; logistics area: energy plants, waste water treatment plants and munitions dumps, and in addition to these installations, 33 light vehicles will also be donated.

This withdrawal, which brings to an end the Spanish presence in the province of Herat, does not mean Spain's full withdrawal from Operation Resolute Support in Afghanistan, which will continue to be carried out through the presence of 20 Spanish military personnel at the General Headquarters of the mission in Kabul. The Spanish Government announced its total withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of October.