Final British Combat Operation in Afghanistan Ends

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A company of British Marines returned from the rugged ravines of eastern Afghanistan Tuesday, concluding Britain's last scheduled combat operation in Afghanistan.

Operation Buzzard ended Tuesday at Bagram air base, north of the capital Kabul, as a troop of British commandos, loaded down with rucksacks, spades, bedrolls and weapons, clambered down from two hulking Chinook helicopters. The British were winding up a four-month mission that brought little tangible result but ended with a welcome absence of casualties.

``I'm definitely glad it's over,'' said Marine Ross Milvan, 23. ``When we arrived, we were expecting a lot of contact with the enemy. That didn't happen.''

Milvan was not sure why it was so difficult to locate al Qaeda and Taliban soldiers, but he knew what he would do when he gets home.

``I'm going to get drunk,'' he said.

British soldiers have already begun pulling out of Afghanistan, with 317 leaving for home last Thursday.

A small combat force for contingency operations will remain under the wing of the U.S. 18th Airborne Corps until the third week of July, leaving only a logistics regiment to help dismantle the colony of tents that has been known as Camp Gibraltar.

In what has been Britain's largest