By Ghanizada - 22 Feb 2013, 7:05 pm
The United States of America will leave between 8,000 and 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014 after all NATO combat troops leave the country, a Germany official has said.
German defense minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters that US defense secretary Leon Panetta has told NATO allies and informed him of the numbers.
However the report has not been confirmed by US officials yet.
This comes as Panetta on Friday said that US officials were planning to leave troops in all sectors of the country ? north, south, east and west ? as well as in Kabul, The Guardian reported.
Pentagon officials have said the military has mapped out plans to carry on its mission of training and advising the Afghan forces and also leave a small counterterrorism force to battle insurgents.
In the meantime Nato secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told reporters that no decision had been made on the size of the post-2014 international force.
Speaking to reporters at the close of the meeting of Nato defence ministers, Panetta noted that the US president, Barack Obama, was strongly considering a plan to maintain 352,000 Afghan troops for the next five years, the option which is considered by majority of the NATO officials.
Senior NATO officials on Thursday said that would be part of an effort to promote security and stability and help persuade Afghanistan that America and its allies would not abandon it once combat troops leave in 2014, senior alliance officials said on Thursday.
US and its allies will burden an increased costs by more than $2 billion a year if such a change is endorsed.
Nato agreed to underwrite an Afghan force of about 230,000, at a cost of about $4.1bn a year after 2014. It costs about $6.5bn this year to fund the current Afghan force of 352,000, and the US is providing about $5.7bn of that.
Follow Khaama Press (KP) | Afghan Online Newspaper on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook. Stay updated via RSS
world war z groundhog day Ed Koch Groundhog Day 2013 What Time Is The Superbowl Caleb Moore House of Cards
No comments:
Post a Comment