U.S. will withdraw from Afghanistan earlier than expected
U.S. President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai said Friday American troops will hand the lead role in fighting the Taliban to Afghan forces in the next few months. The remarks followed a meeting of the two leaders at the White House.
Obama said American troops in Afghanistan will move to a supporting role several months earlier than expected.
“Our troops will have a different mission, training, advising, assisting Afghan forces. It will be an historic moment,” said Obama.
Karzai said after the handover, Afghan forces will be fully responsible for security.
“International forces, the American forces, will be no longer present in Afghan villages, that the task will be that of the Afghan forces to provide for the Afghan people security and protection,” said Karzai.
The comments came several days after a senior Obama administration official suggested the U.S. may pull out all of its troops by the end of 2014.