Military’s Afghanistan mission completed

AMMAN — The last batch of Jordanian forces in Afghanistan arrived in the Kingdom on Monday, ending a 13-year, army-led humanitarian mission in the crisis-hit Islamic country.

With the return home of the "Afghanistan 240", the last contingent of Jordan's force in Afghanistan, the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) has completed the peacekeeping mission they began in 2002, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, said. 

During their presence in Afghanistan, Jordanian troops have been involved in peacekeeping and humanitarian tasks in the war-torn country, manifested in field hospital services and in-kind assistance to Afghan families. 

The JAF mission in Afghanistan also took the form of preaching and educating the Afghan people on the true essence of Islam, “which is based on moderation, coexistence and tolerance”, according to Petra. 

Jordanian soldiers in Afghanistan renovated and furnished several mosques and held several iftar banquets for Afghan orphans and underprivileged families during the holy month of Ramadan. 

According to JAF, the Kingdom’s participation in the international peacekeeping forces, which started in 1989, covers several humanitarian missions that include sending field hospitals and surgical stations to various regions of the world to aid those injured because of wars or natural disasters.

Jordan has dispatched several field hospitals to conflict zones and areas affected by natural disasters across the world such as Iraq, the West Bank, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iran, Indonesia, Congo, Liberia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sierra Leone and Pakistan.

The JAF field hospital in Afghanistan has since 2002 provided assistance to some 750,000 persons and significantly reduced the suffering of people residing in areas where the hospital operates. Some 400 medical cadres and technicians work at the “well-equipped” hospital, the army said in its statement to Petra.