KABUL, AFGHANISTAN: Turkish International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers say goodbye before boarding a flight back to Turkey at the APOD military base located at the Kabul International Airport February 7, 2003 in Kabul, Afghanistan. After seven and a half months the Turkish forces are pulling out of Afghanistan and will hand over the mission to the German-Netherlands Corps on the 10th of February.
"We don't want to be in a fighting position" in Afghanistan, Gul told reporters here on his return from a visit to Jordan. "Our activities [in Afghanistan] will increase, but we decide on the modalities."
His remarks came two days after U.S. President Barack Obama announced that nearly 30,000 additional U.S. combat troops would be sent to Afghanistan. U.S. officials also urged other NATO nations to act similarly.
Unwilling to join the anti-Taliban fighting, Turkey instead plans to assume a more prominent role in the training of Afghan National Army and police forces, officials say.
Turkey last month took over the rotating command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force peacekeeping mission in Kabul and doubled the number of its troops there to about 1,750. But the Turkish contingent's caveats do not allow it to take part in active combat operations.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with Obama on Dec. 7 at the White House, and Afghanistan will be among top issues to be discussed.
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