President Obama said Tuesday that he will delay a planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and maintain a force of 9,800 in the war-torn nation through the end of this year. Reductions in 2016 will be made based on conditions on the ground, according to a joint U.S.-Afghanistan statement issued after Obama met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the White House.
While the United States had planned to cut its Afghanistan force nearly in half this year, Obama said he agreed to Ghani's request for a slowdown so that Afghanistan can continue building up its own force.
"This flexibility reflects our reinvigorated partnership with Afghanistan, which is aimed at making Afghanistan secure and preventing it from being used to launch terrorist attacks," Obama said at a joint news conference with his Afghan counterpart.
