Incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to pull out a significant number of American troops from Afghanistan in the final days of his presidency, U.S. officials said Monday.
The plan, which would also see a small cutback in the number of soldiers in Iraq, would contradict military commanders' advice in the past few months - while still falling short of the commander in chief's goal to end the U.S.' long foreign military interventions.
A defense official said the White House had directed the Pentagon to start trimming troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 each by Jan. 15, just days before Joe Biden's inauguration.
There are around 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iraq. Trump previously said he wanted all troops "home by Christmas" and criticized American military interventions for being too costly and ineffective.
The news comes a week after Trump booted out Defense Secretary Mark Esper - in part for opposing Trump's efforts to fast-track the Afghanistan troop withdrawal against the advice of military top brass, setting off an expulsion of top Pentagon officials last week.
The Pentagon's new commanders, including acting secretary of defense Christopher Miller, who recently served as chief of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, are viewed as less averse to Trump's decisions.
But Trump's plan is facing a rare censure from a fellow Republican, Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who warned that militants would "love" the idea of American troop withdrawal.
Officials cautioned that anything can still happen, as Trump is known to make snap decisions based on news and online reports. Some military officials have expressed less worry about the reduction in Iraq, where the Iraqi forces are now better able to maintain their country's security.
American troops have been in Afghanistan since 2001. A U.S.-led coalition overthrew the Taliban weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. by al-Qaida, which was then based in Afghanistan.
In 2003, U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein, hunting for so-called weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be nonexistent.
