President Obama unveiled a plan for the exit of US troops from Afghanistan, saying that his forces will complete their withdrawal by the end of 2016. For its part, Taliban movement considered the plan, a ‘continued occupation’.
US President Barack Obama unveiled a plan for the exit of US troops from Afghanistan, saying that his forces will complete their withdrawal by the end of 2016. For its part, Taliban movement condemned the plan, considering it a ‘continued occupation’ for Afghanistan.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, Obama confirmed that the 32,000-strong US deployment in Afghanistan would be scaled back to around 9,800 by the start of 2015.
Those forces would be halved by the end of 2015 before eventually being scaled back to a normal embassy presence with a security assistance component by the end of 2016.
"We're finishing the job we started," Obama said, as he outlined the end of US involvement in a conflict which began when American-led forces invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and hunt Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
US combat operations would draw to a close at the end of 2014, meaning US troops would no longer patrol Afghan cities, towns or valleys from next year, Obama said.
On the other hand, the Taliban condemned Obama's announcement.
"Now that Obama has announced that he will keep around 10,000 troops until the end of 2016 and continue their occupation, Afghanistan Islamic Emirate condemns it and considers it a violation of sovereignty, religion and human rights," said Taliban in a statement.
“We have always clearly expressed our stance that even if one American soldier is in Afghanistan, it is not acceptable to our nation and Jihad will continue against them."
The Taliban insisted US troops should pull out right away.
"The American leaders should do now what they plan to do two years later... if the Americans really want to free themselves from the Afghan war, they should completely withdraw their soldiers from Afghanistan," the statement added.
NATO combat troops are due to withdraw from the country by December, but a residual US force is expected to remain behind for training exercises and counter-terror missions, if both countries sign a long-delayed Bilateral Security Agreement.
Afghanistan's outgoing president Hamid Karzai has refused to sign the agreement, but both of the candidates vying to be his successor in next month's run-off vote -- Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah -- have said they will sign the deal.
