The New York Times reported that U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to order the country’s military to pull thousands of troops out Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia by January.
According to the report as citing officials, the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan would be reduced from the current count—4,500 troops—to half.
It came after President Donald Trump announced in a tweet early on October, ahead of U.S. presidential elections on November, that he wanted a “small remaining number” of his troops “serving in Afghanistan” to return home by Christmas.
But U.S. former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, had sent a classified memo to the White House, voicing concerns about accelerating the troop drawdown in Afghanistan, as the news agency reported.
Conditions on the ground were not yet right, Mr. Esper is said to have written in the reminder.
His letter was believed to be one of the reasons he was fired by President Trump.
President Trump earlier last week announced the termination of Esper, replacing him by Cristopher C. Miller who also agreed him in ending wars in the Middle East.
Esper’s abrupt firing came just few days after Democrat Joe Biden was called to be the next president of the United States, making the transition from a Trump to a Biden administration to be a turbulent.
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