Withdraw our troops from Afghanistan: Italian Senator

Rome   :  Italy's ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement wants Italy's 900-strong troop contingent in Afghanistan to be drawn down rapidly after presidential polls scheduled for late September, one of the party's senior lawmakers said on Tuesday.

"We hope that the progressive Italian military disengagement in Afghanistan may undergo a strong acceleration after the presidential elections scheduled for this autumn," Senate Foreign Affairs Committee chief Gianluca Ferrara said.

"We would like to this lead to the complete withdrawal of our contingent from that distant country," Ferrara said during a debate in the upper house of parliament on Italy's 2019 military missions.

Italy's military disengagement needed to be accompanied by a greater commitment to civil cooperation in support of national reconciliation, reconstruction and Afghan's economic and social development, he underlined.

The fight against opium cultivation and the production and trafficking of heroin, was of much greater relevance to Italy than battling terrorists in Afghanistan that "do not threaten our security," Ferrara argued

"High-quality, low-cost Afghan heroin has returned to invade our suburbs and to claim victims among our children," he claimed.