Obama to signal 10,000-strong withdrawal from Afghanistan

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama is expected to withdraw roughly 10,000 troops from Afghanistan this year, with about 5,000 forces leaving this summer and another 5,000 coming home by the end of the year, a senior American defence official said yesterday.

Obama could also announce a timetable for recalling the 20,000 other troops he ordered to Afghanistan as part of his December 2009 decision to send reinforcements to reverse the Taliban’s battlefield momentum.

Obama spokesman Jay Carney said the president had finalised his decision on the withdrawal plan and would address the nation today. He said the president informed his national security team of his plans during a White House meeting yesterday.

While Carney would not discuss the details, he said the withdrawal set to begin next month puts the US on a path toward giving Afghans control of their own security by 2014.

At a democratic fundraiser in Washington on Monday, Obama said that, by the end of the year, “we will be transitioning in Afghanistan to turn over more and more security to the Afghan people”.

US military commanders want to keep as many soldiers in Afghanistan for as long as possible, arguing that too fast a withdrawal could undermine the fragile security gains in the fight against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, the al-Qaida training ground for the 9/11 attacks. There are also concerns about pulling out a substantial number of troops as the summer fighting season gets under way.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who is retiring from the Pentagon next week, has said the initial withdrawal should be “modest”.

But other advisers backed a more significant withdrawal that starts in July and proceeds steadily through the following months.

That camp believes the slow yet steady security gains in Afghanistan, combined with the death of Osama bin Laden and US success in dismantling much of the al-Qaida network in the country, give Obama an opportunity to make larger reductions this year.

Gates said Obama’s decision needs to incorporate domestic concerns about the war in Afghanistan into his decision.

“It goes without saying there are a lot of reservations in the Congress about the war in Afghanistan and our level of commitment,” he said. “There are concerns among the American people who are tired of a decade of war.”