BERLIN (AFP)--A poll published in Germany on Wednesday showed
almost 60% support for a pullout of the country's troops from
Afghanistan just over a week before a key North Atlantic Treaty
Organization summit.
Just 36% of those polled by the Forsa institute in the survey
commissioned by Cicero magazine were in favor of Germany's roughly
3,500 troops staying, while 58% want them to come home.
The German contingent, the upper limit of which parliament voted
last year to increase to 4,500, is part of the NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force). The soldiers are based in
the relatively peaceful north of Afghanistan.
The mission has always been highly unpopular in Germany, the
country's first major overseas military operation since World War
II. Thirty-one German troops have died in Afghanistan since 2002,
including 14 during attacks.
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to press his allies -
Germany included - to do more at a 60th anniversary NATO summit on
April 3-4 in Strasbourg, France and the German town of
Baden-Baden.