Four French Troops Killed

Four French soldiers were killed and five more wounded in an attack in Afghanistan on Saturday, French President Francois Hollande said in a statement. The soldiers were reportedly in the province of Kapisa, near Kabul. France has 3,300 soldiers in the country but plans to pull out its troops later this year, ahead of the main NATO timetable, which calls for a pullout by 2014. The four deaths bring the total number of French troops who have died in Afghanistan to 87 since the country began its military presence in the country in 2001. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy announced France’s early drawdown in January after four other French troops were killed in Kapisa.