More US troops than planned to stay in Afghanistan
KABUL - US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Saturday the United States will keep as many as 1,000 more troops in Afghanistan than planned for the first part of 2015.
At a joint news conference at the presidential palace with President Ashraf Ghani, Hagel said the original plan to cut US troop levels to 9,800 by the end of this year had been abandoned, but not because of a recent surge in Taliban attacks.
Hagel said the US will keep up to 10,800 troops for the first few months of next year and then restart the drawdown, which is scheduled to reach 5,500 troops by the end of 2015.
The US decided to keep additional forces in the country temporarily because planned troop commitments by US allies for a NATO train-and-assist mission starting in January have been slow to materialize.
