US mulling significant troop reduction in Afghanistan: officials

  21 December 2018    Read: 883
US mulling significant troop reduction in Afghanistan: officials

President Donald Trump's administration is considering a significant reduction of potentially thousands of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday, a sign that Trump's patience with the 17-year-old war is thinning.

The drawdown, if confirmed, would slash troop levels from their current 14,000, and would follow Trump's decision to completely withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria.

The U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon declined to comment.

On Wednesday, Washington announced it will be withdrawing all of its troops from Syria, following a conversation between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Trump over an imminent Turkish cross-border operation to eliminate terrorist People's Protection Units (YPG) from northern Syria.

It has been reported that the U.S. still has about 2,000 troops in Syria.

The timeframe for U.S. troop pullout from the country is expected to be between 60 to 100 days, according to a U.S. official.


More about: Pentagon   Afghanistan  


News Line