Troop levels in Afghanistan to be cut by Nov

KABUL will be cut down to between 4,000 and 5,000 by November, says President Donald Trump.

In an interview on Monday, Trump said he would slash the number of American soldiers in Afghanistan before the US election, slated for November.

“We are largely out of Afghanistan. We’ll be down in a very short period of time to 8,000, then we’re going to be down to 4,000,” he told Axios on HBO.

His administration was currently in the process of discussing the troop drawdown, explained the president, who said America had been in Afghanistan for 19 years.

While refusing to give the exact date for the final reduction of troops, he said the ex-Soviet Union had disintegrated because of the war in Afghanistan.

As part of its peace deal with the Taliban, the US has cut its troop presence in Afghanistan to 8,600. Under the February 29 pact, the US will fully withdraw its forces by next May.

PAN Monitor/mud