SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Trump to announce US troop withdrawals from Iraq, Afghanistan
Washington, Sept 9 (AFP) Sep 09, 2020
US President Donald Trump will announce further troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan in the next few days, a senior administration official said Tuesday.

The official told reporters traveling with the president to expect an announcement Wednesday on Iraq, and on Afghanistan in the coming days.

During a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi in August, Trump said American troops would leave Iraq but gave no timetable.

The talks between the pair came with attacks on American targets by pro-Iranian fighters on the rise and the Iraqi government facing calls to expel the roughly 5,000 US troops deployed in the country as part of anti-jihadist efforts.

The US military withdrew from Iraq in late 2011, leaving a small mission attached to the US embassy.

But additional American forces were deployed a few years later to support Iraqi forces in their war against Islamic State, which carried out a devastating offensive in the summer of 2014.

In Afghanistan the US currently has 8,600 soldiers in accordance with a bilateral agreement signed in February between Washington and the Taliban.

The Pentagon said in August that its goal was to get down to fewer than 5,000 troops as inter-Afghan peace talks progress.

Trump previously mentioned in an interview with Axios that the White House aimed to reach 4,000 to 5,000 troops in Afghanistan by the November presidential election.

Under the US-Taliban deal, all foreign troops must leave the country by the spring of 2021, in exchange for security commitments from the militants.

Trump, who is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in the polls ahead of the November 3 election, has previously promised to bring troops home in a bid to end what he has called America's endless wars.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Private capital targets mission-critical software power and platforms in new space economy
Maven stays silent after routine pass behind Mars
Uranus and Neptune may be rock rich worlds

24/7 Energy News Coverage
IAEA calls for repair work on Chernobyl sarcophagus
South Africa's informal miners fight for their future in coal's twilight
China's smaller manufacturers look to catch the automation wave

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Autonomous DARPA project to expand satellite surveillance network by BAE Systems
UK's new military chief to stress Russian threat; Royal navy tracked Russian sub in Channel
Momentus joins US Space Force SHIELD contract vehicle

24/7 News Coverage
Indonesia flood death toll passes 1,000 as authorities ramp up aid
US agency wipes climate change facts from website: reports
Kennedy's health movement turns on Trump administration over pesticides



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.