Pentagon Chief Reviews Plans to Shut Kandahar Base
Pentagon chief Ashton Carter headed to southern Afghanistan on Sunday to review plans to withdraw US forces in a volatile area that has long preoccupied American commanders.
In his first visit abroad days after he took over as US defence secretary, Carter met senior officers and troops at Kandahar airfield, a key base that hosts US special forces and advisers as well as helicopters and other aircraft.
After talks in Kabul with President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday, Carter made clear that President Barack Obama’s administration was considering slowing down a planned timetable for a troop pullout.
The current plan would reduce the existing force of more than 10,000 to about 5,500 by the end of the year, and then pull out all troops in two years’ time — when Obama’s term ends.