Last of 'Surge' Troops Leave Afghanistan: Good or Bad?

The last of 33,000 extra US soldiers sent to Afghanistan by President Barack Obama more than three years ago have left the country, the Pentagon says.

They were deployed with the aim of pushing back the Taliban and allowing Afghan government forces time to take over the security of their own country.

Some 68,000 US service personnel remain as so-called insider attacks by Afghan soldiers and police increase.

In the latest violence, a bomb killed five members of the same Afghan family.

Two women, two girls under the age of eight and a man died after a roadside device exploded under their car in the Dehrawood district of Uruzgan province, Afghan officials said.

Abdollah Hemat, spokesman for the governor of Uruzgan, told the Afghan Islamic Press news agency that the dead man was a civilian and not an employee of the government.

No group said it had carried out the attack, but Mr Hemat blamed "the enemies of Afghanistan", a term used by Afghan officials to refer to Taliban insurgents.

Roadside bomb attacks are frequently carried out by the Taliban fighting against Nato forces and the government of President Hamid Karzai.
'Milestone'

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta announced the withdrawal in a statement, saying an important milestone had been reached.