Barack Obama to keep 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan

President Barack Obama has announced plans to keep nearly 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan through most of next year and 5,500 when he leaves office in 2017, casting aside his promise to end the war on his watch and instead ensuring he hands off the conflict to a successor.

Mr Obama called the new war plan a “modest but meaningful” extension of the US military mission in Afghanistan, which he originally planned to end next year.