France ended its last combat mission in Afghanistan on Tuesday, withdrawing troops from a strategic province northeast of Kabul as part of an accelerated departure from the war-torn country.

Paris has said all French combat soldiers will leave next month, two years before NATO nations contributing to the 100,000-strong International Security Assistance Force led by the United States, are due to depart.

Around 1,500 French soldiers will stay into 2013 to take responsibility for repatriating equipment and training the Afghan army to take over when all NATO combat troops leave in 2014.