Decision to withdraw 7,000 troops from Afghanistan made: US official

afghan_troops [File] US army soldiers in Afghanistan | PTI

After pulling out forces from Syria, the Trump government has decided to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. The decision comes right after Defence Secretary Jim Mattis resigned over differences with the President over these very issues.

As per a White House official, the significant decision has been made and orders have gone out to remove 7,000 troops from the war-torn nation. The process is expected to be carried out in course of next few months.

Currently a strength of 14,000 troops are working either with a NATO mission to support Afghan forces or in separate counter-terrorism operations.

Senior Afghan officials and Western diplomats in the country woke up in shock to the news. The decisions regarding Syria and Afghanistan are indeed huge and it does raise a question as to what could be next in the longest war the US has been involved in.

Military operations in Afghanistan began in 2001 after the September 11 attack with George W Bush sending in troops to the country and demanding that they turn over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. More than 2,400 Americans have died in Afghanistan since 2001. Trump in his 2016 campaign had talked about US troops in Afghanistan and called it a “complete waste”. It is to be noted that US, on the sidelines have been in talks with Taliban leaders and the decision could very well be an outcome of the same.

Mattis and other top military advisors last year persuaded Trump to commit thousands of new troops to Afghanistan, where the Taliban were slaughtering local forces in the thousands and making major gains. Trump at the time said his instinct was to get out of Afghanistan. As per another American official, the effort is to make Afghan forces more reliant on their own troops and not Western support. It is also to be noted that last year while announcing Afghanistan policy, Trump was critical of the Obama government for openly indicating to the Taliban, plans of a drawdown.

In the meantime, a spokesperson for President Ashraf Ghani, Haroon Chakhansuri said, a withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan would not affect security of country. He said that it is because in the last four years the Afghans have been in full control. He made the statement via social media.