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Afghanistan | USEmbassy.gov

The Trump administration is planning to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with the possibility that some troops begin withdrawing in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official. The current force of 14,000 is expected to be cut in half, with those troops arriving home by the end of the spring, a second U.S. official said.

A third official told ABC News that discussions have been underway for several weeks about how to withdraw some U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

The president discussed the plan on Wednesday with Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, who all cautioned against the move, according to a fourth U.S. official and another source with knowledge of the meeting. Trump believes withdrawing troops from Afghanistan would appeal to his base and fulfill a campaign promise.

The consideration comes just one day after Trump announced he was pulling 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria within 30 days.

Asked by a reporter over Thanksgiving if he would withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Trump replied, "We're always looking to do the right thing. We'll be seeing over a period of time, but we're looking."

Late on Thursday, Mattis announced he would leave the office of Defense Secretary on Feb. 28, 2019, writing in a resignation letter about the importance of U.S. alliances and partnerships, issues that Mattis and Trump have clashed over in the past -- including Afghanistan.

Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, Mattis wrote. I believe it is right for me to step down from my position."

Asked whether the president had given any indication he intends to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said on Thursday to ABC News, "I'm concerned about that, but after having been to Afghanistan, it will pave the way for another 9/11.

"It will be the most disastrous decision any president could make as to withdraw our forces from Afghanistan without conditions changing."

There are currently about 14,000 U.S. troops serving in a counterterrorism mission against the Taliban and ISIS and as part of a train, advise, and assist mission for Afghan security forces.

Shortly after entering office, Trump decided to add 3,000 U.S. troops to the mission as part of his South Asia Strategy for the region.

"America will work with the Afghan government as long as we see determination and progress. However, our commitment is not unlimited, and our support is not a blank check," Trump said when announcing the new strategy in August of 2017. "The government of Afghanistan must carry their share of the military, political, and economic burden. The American people expect to see real reforms, real progress, and real results. Our patience is not unlimited. We will keep our eyes wide open."

ABC News' Mariam Khan contributed to this report from Capitol Hill.

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Trump planning to pull 7,000 troops from Afghanistan ...

WASHINGTON All American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan over the next three to five years under a new Pentagon plan being offered in peace negotiations that could lead to a government in Kabul that shares power with the Taliban.

The rest of the international force in Afghanistan would leave at the same time, after having mixed success in stabilizing the country since 2001. The plan is being discussed with European allies and was devised, in part, to appeal to President Trump, who has long expressed skepticism of enduring American roles in wars overseas.

The plan calls for cutting by half, in coming months, the 14,000 American troops currently in Afghanistan. It would task the 8,600 European and other international troops with training the Afghan military a focus of the NATO mission for more than a decade and largely shift American operations to counterterrorism strikes.

[For more stories about the experiences and costs of war, sign up for the weekly At War newsletter.]

Various elements of the plan were shared with The New York Times by more than a half-dozen current and former American and European officials. It intends to help talks with the Taliban that are being led by Zalmay Khalilzad, the American special envoy.

So far, the plan has been met with broad acceptance in Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels. But American officials warned that Mr. Trump could upend the new plan at any time.

And officials said that even if the peace talks broke down, the United States would go forward with shifting to counterterrorism missions from training Afghan forces.

Until the final withdrawal, several thousand American forces would continue strikes against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, including on partnered raids with Afghan commandos. The counterterrorism missions, and the militarys dwindling presence, are also critical to allowing the C.I.A. to operate in Afghanistan.

Lt. Col. Kon Faulkner, a Pentagon spokesman, said no decisions had been made as peace talks continued. The Defense Department is considering all options of force numbers and disposition, Colonel Faulkner said.

But European allies said they had been consulted about the proposal a stark contrast to Mr. Trumps surprise announcement in December to withdraw American forces from Syria.

The Europeans are perfectly capable of conducting the training mission, James Stavridis, a retired American admiral and former top NATO commander who is now with the Carlyle Group private equity firm. It is a smart division of labor to have the United States shift the bulk of its effort toward the special forces mission and having the Europeans do the training mission.

Mr. Stavridis said the two missions would be coordinated, including American logistical support and military backup for the European troops.

On Monday, American diplomats met with the Taliban in Qatar in the highest-level negotiations yet, including the attendance of Gen. Austin S. Miller, the commander of the international mission in Afghanistan. The negotiations paused on Wednesday and are set to resume on Saturday.

The two sides have sought to flesh out a framework agreement, decided in principle last month, for the full withdrawal of foreign troops and assurances by the Taliban to prevent terrorist groups that seek to attack the United States from using Afghan territory as a safe haven.

The Afghan government has not been a part of the negotiations because of Taliban reluctance to talk to President Ashraf Ghani or his envoys.

The prospect of an American military withdrawal has raised fears across the world that it could lead to the fall of the Western-backed government in Kabul and a return to the extremist rule of the Taliban. Before it was ousted in 2001, the Taliban was accused of human rights abuses, prohibited girls from attending school and imposed harsh penalties on accused heretics.

American officials have said any deal to withdraw international forces from Afghanistan must involve a cease-fire agreement and the inclusion of government leaders in the negotiations.

In a speech on Thursday in Kabul, Mr. Ghani warned Afghan security forces to be prepared for possible Taliban attacks ahead of any peace deal.

Peace is not easy; it needs courage and bilateral honor, Mr. Ghani said.

European officials have previously said they would rapidly pull their forces from Afghanistan if the American military was shorn too small to provide logistic support. American officials said enough troops would remain even if they were cut to 7,000 to continue the European training mission as outlined in the Pentagons plan.

In some respects, the focus on counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan is an endorsement of a plan by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the Obama administration debated its own war strategy in 2009. Mr. Bidens proposal was ultimately rejected in favor of a counterinsurgency plan, which called for training local forces and a surge of American troops, as pushed by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who was then the top commander in Afghanistan.

Taliban negotiators deeply oppose the proposal for American counterterrorism troops to remain in Afghanistan for up to five years, and officials were unsure if a shorter period of time would be accepted by the militants rank and file.

Scaling back the training mission could leave the beleaguered Afghan military not just vulnerable to attacks, but at risk of fracturing. In January, Mr. Ghani announced that more than 45,000 Afghan troops had died since 2014; Pentagon officials have called their casualty numbers unsustainable.

Despite pouring billions of dollars into the Afghan military for more than a decade, Pentagon audits show that a renewed effort to modernize the fledgling Afghan Air Force will most likely not be self-sufficient until the mid-2030s.

Speaking to lawmakers in December, the incoming commander for American troops in the Middle East, Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., said that Afghan forces could not sustain themselves without American and NATO support.

I do know that today it would be very difficult for them to survive without our and our coalition partners assistance, he said.

Current and former Defense Department officials said limiting American assistance to the Afghan military would require a delicate balance of providing just enough material support for the NATO training mission, known as Resolute Support, to ensure that Western allies remain invested without sacrificing counterterrorism operations.

European allies cited General Miller as describing the reduced troop levels as about doing more with less.

One former Defense Department official with knowledge of the talks said more American support for the training mission could be based outside Afghanistan and flown in when needed. European countries have relied heavily on American bases, supplies and other logistics throughout the war.

One German official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, underscored how reliant Berlins 1,300 troops are on medical evacuation aircraft and air support provided by the United States.

British forces may take part in counterterrorism operations, but those missions are expected to nearly completely be under American command.

Laurel Miller, who was a top State Department official working on Afghanistan and Pakistan policy during the Obama and Trump administrations, said it was risky to change the military mission in Afghanistan without a peace plan in place.

The idea of scaling down to a small CT-only mission has long been discussed in the U.S. government, she said. But, she said, if you stop backing up Afghan forces in their main fight, you cant very well keep working on your narrower priorities in isolation with Afghanistan falling apart around you.

It is also possible that international funding support for the Afghan government could end up going to the Taliban under a power-sharing agreement. But American and European officials called it critically necessary to continue funding Afghan security forces.

The track record for American-supported governments after peace treaties or troop withdrawals is shaky at best.

American-trained South Vietnamese fell to Communist forces two years after the United States withdrew from the Vietnam War in 1973. Large portions of the Iraqi Army collapsed in the face of an Islamic State offensive in 2014, just three years after the withdrawal of the American military and its trainers, necessitating a return to Iraq by international forces.

Some officials believe continued funding for the Afghan military is more important than an enduring international troop presence for the survival of Afghanistans government.

As long as we continue to provide funding to the Afghan security forces in the field, I think the security forces would be very capable of keeping order in the country, particularly in a scenario where the Taliban has come in from the cold, Mr. Stavridis said.

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Under Peace Plan, U.S. Military Would Exit Afghanistan Within ...

Three U.S. Marines were killed when their convoy hit a roadside bomb on Monday near the main U.S. air base in Afghanistan, U.S. officials have confirmed. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The U.S. military corrected on Tuesday its initial report on the incident, saying an Afghan contractor working with the U.S. forces and initially reported dead was in fact alive.

The U.S. and NATO Resolute Support mission said the American troops were killed near the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, while three others were wounded in the explosion. The base in Bagram district serves as the main U.S. air facility in the country.

The wounded were evacuated and were receiving medical care, the statement said. It added that in accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy, the names of service members killed in action were being withheld until after the notification of next of kin.

"The contractor who was reported as killed, is alive," the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan, Operation Resolute Support, said in a statement released Tuesday. "The contractor, an Afghan citizen, was initially treated along with other injured civilians, later identified as a contractor and treated at Bagram Airfield."

The fatalities, which bring to seven the number of U.S. soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan, underscore the difficulties in bringing peace to the war-wrecked country even as Washington has stepped up efforts to find a way to end the 17-year war, America's longest.

There are about 14,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, supporting embattled Afghan forces as they struggle on two fronts facing a resurgent Taliban who now hold sway over almost half the country and also the Islamic State affiliate, which has sought to expand its footprint in Afghanistan even as its self-proclaimed "caliphate" has crumbled in Syria and Iraq.

Last year, 13 U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have continued to carry out daily attacks on Afghan security forces despite holding several rounds of peace talks with the United States in recent months. The Taliban have refused to meet with the Afghan government, which they view as a U.S. puppet.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have agreed to take part in an all-Afghan gathering later this month in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office. But the Taliban say they will not recognize any government official attending the gathering as a representative of the Kabul government, only as an individual Afghan participant.

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Afghanistan blast leaves 3 U.S. Marines dead, 3 others ...

U.S. forces in Afghanistan revised on Tuesday the death toll from a Taliban attack the previous day near the main American base in the country, saying two U.S. soldiers and a Marine were killed but not a contractor who was initially reported among the fatalities.

The U.S. and NATO Resolute Support mission issued a statement "to clarify initial reporting" about Monday's roadside bombing of an American convoy near the main U.S. base. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The mission said a roadside bomb hit the convoy near the Bagram Airfield, killing three American service members, and that "the contractor who was reported as killed, is alive."

The statement said "the contractor, an Afghan citizen, was initially treated along with other injured civilians, later identified as a contractor and treated at Bagram Airfield."

Three other U.S. service members were also wounded in the attack. The base in Bagram district is located in northern Parwan province and serves as the main U.S. air facility in the country.

The wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical care, the statement said. It added that in accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy, the names of service members killed in action were being withheld until after the notification of next of kin.

Christopher Slutman, a 15-year New York City fire department member, was among the three American service members killed. He leaves behind his wife, Shannon, and three daughters.

"Firefighter Slutman bravely wore two uniforms and committed his life to public service both as a New York City firefighter and as a member of the United States Marine Corps," Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said in a written statement.

In their claim of responsibility, the Taliban said they launched the attack and that one of their suicide bombers detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near the NATO base. The conflicting accounts could not be immediately reconciled.

On Tuesday, local Afghan officials said at least five Afghan civilians were wounded in the commotion after the attack on the American convoy.

Four were passers-by and the fifth was a driver of a car going down the road, said Abdul Raqib Kohistani, the Bagram district police chief. Abdul Shakor Qudosi, the district administrative chief in Bagram, said American soldiers opened fire immediately after their convoy was bombed.

Monday's U.S. fatalities bring to seven the number of U.S. soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan, underscoring the difficulties in bringing peace to the war-wrecked country even as Washington has stepped up efforts to find a way to end the 17-year war, America's longest.

There are about 14,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, supporting embattled Afghan forces as they struggle on two fronts facing a resurgent Taliban who now hold sway over almost half the country and also the Islamic State affiliate, which has sought to expand its footprint in Afghanistan even as its self-proclaimed "caliphate" has crumbled in Syria and Iraq.

Last year, 13 U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have continued to carry out daily attacks on Afghan security forces despite holding several rounds of peace talks with the United States in recent months. The Taliban have refused to meet with the Afghan government, which they view as a U.S. puppet.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have agreed to take part in an all-Afghan gathering later this month in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office. But the Taliban say they will not recognize any government official attending the gathering as a representative of the Kabul government, only as an individual Afghan participant.

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3 American troops killed in roadside bombing in Afghanistan ...