British troops end combat operations in Afghanistan

British troops ended their combat operations in Afghanistan as they and US Marines handed over two huge adjacent bases to the Afghan military, 13 years after a US-led invasion launched the costly war against the Taliban.

Their departure leaves Afghanistan and its newly installed president, Ashraf Ghani, to deal almost unaided with an emboldened Taliban insurgency after the last foreign combat troops withdraw by the year’s end.

At the US Camp Leatherneck and Britain’s Camp Bastion, which lie next to each other in the south-western province of Helmand, troops lowered the US and UK flags for the final time yesterday and folded them away.