Azernews.Az

By Jamila Babayeva

Another group of soldiers of the Georgian Armed Forces' Batumi Separate Infantry Battalion have returned from Afghanistan to Georgia.

Georgian Deputy Defense Minister, Mikhail Darchiashvili and Deputy Chief of General Staff, Colonel Vladimir Chachibaya met the soldiers at Alekseevka air base. They congratulated the soldiers on successful execution of the ISAF mission and returning home.

"Today 155 soldiers of Batumi Separate Infantry Battalion have returned home from Afghanistan. They conducted their mission for a few months together with the U.S. soldiers in one of the most challenging regions of Afghanistan. I would like to thank each of them on behalf of the Defense Ministry for conducting their mission in a highly professional manner," Darchiashvili said.

Georgian soldiers were conducting the ISAF mission as part of the U.S. troops in Helmand province. The main task of the battalion is to neutralize rebel forces in the area of ​​operations, support local government and national security forces, control security zones and cooperate with the U.S. soldiers.

The first group of Batumi battalion soldiers returned home two weeks ago. A few weeks later the whole battalion will return to Georgia.

Georgia has been assisting the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan since 2004.

Georgia indicated its willingness to continue to support the development of the Afghan security forces, after the completion of ISAF's mission at the end of 2014, when responsibility for security will have been fully transferred to the Afghan authorities and security forces.