US president delays pulling out troops from Afghanistan

onnaedo

March 25, 2015 1:41 PM

Speaking at a joint press conference with the Afghan president, Obama said he would maintain a force of 9,800 through the end of 2015 while sticking to a 2017 exit plan.

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United States president, Barack Obama has delayed pulling out US troops from Afghanistan following president Ashraf Ghani requests to slow the withdrawal of US troops from the country, Al Jazeera reports.

According to him, it made sense to provide a few extra months for us to be able to help on things like logistics and "providing this additional timeframe during this fighting season for us to be able to help the Afghan security forces succeed is well worth it."

He further said the US force would be kept at its current strength to train and assist Afghan forces, who took over responsibility for the fight against Taliban and other rebels at the start of the year.

The pace of the US troop reduction in 2016 would be established later this year and the goal remained to consolidate US forces in the country in a presence at the Kabul embassy at the end of 2016.

onnaedo