The Trump administration is withdrawing roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, two defense officials said Thursday, around half of what the US military has there now.
Written by Thomas Gibbons-Neff
The Trump administration is withdrawing roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, two defense officials said Thursday, around half of what the US military has there now.
Trump made the decision at the same time he decided he was pulling US forces out of Syria, one official said. The move is likely one of the first steps to end the United States’ involvement in the 17-year-old war.
The 14,000 US troops currently in Afghanistan are divided between training and advising Afghan forces and a counterterror mission against groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaida. The reduction, one official said, is in an effort to make Afghan forces more reliant on their own troops and not Western support.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the development. Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokeswoman, declined comment.
Currently, American airstrikes are at levels not seen since the height of the war, when tens of thousands of U.S. troops were spread throughout the country. That air support, officials say, consists mostly of propping up Afghan troops while they try to hold territory from a resurgent Taliba.
More than 25,000 Afghan troops have died since the U.S. military ended combat operations in late 2014.
The Trump administration is withdrawing roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, two defense officials said Thursday, around half of what the US military has there now.
Trump made the decision at the same time he decided he was pulling US forces out of Syria, one official said. The move is likely one of the first steps to end the United States’ involvement in the 17-year-old war.
The 14,000 US troops currently in Afghanistan are divided between training and advising Afghan forces and a counterterror mission against groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaida. The reduction, one official said, is in an effort to make Afghan forces more reliant on their own troops and not Western support.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the development. Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokeswoman, declined comment.
Currently, American airstrikes are at levels not seen since the height of the war, when tens of thousands of U.S. troops were spread throughout the country. That air support, officials say, consists mostly of propping up Afghan troops while they try to hold territory from a resurgent Taliba.
More than 25,000 Afghan troops have died since the U.S. military ended combat operations in late 2014.