KABUL, a media report said on Wednesday.
“The pullback represents a turning point for the CIA as it shifts resources to other trouble spots,” the Washington Post said, as CIA plans to cut its clandestine installations in Afghanistan from a dozen to six over the next two years.
Officials were quoted as saying the reductions were overdue in a region where US espionage efforts were seen as out of proportion to the threat posed by al-Qaeda’s diminished core leadership in Pakistan.
One senior administration official told the newspaper: “When we look at post-2014, how does the threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan measure against the threat in North Africa and Yemen? Shouldn’t our resources reflect that?”
Expected to maintain a significant footprint in Afghanistan even after the pullback, the CIA would continue to operate its fleet of armed drones to patrol Pakistan’s tribal region.
The armed drones are flown from a heavily fortified airstrip in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, according to the daily.
PAN Monitor/mud
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