Hagel: More U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan than planned, The United States will keep as many as 1,000 more troops than planned in Afghanistan for the first part of 2015, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Saturday.
Hagel said the increase, above the original plan for about 9,800 American troops to remain in Afghanistan past this year, was not in response to a recent uptick in Taliban attacks.
The U.S. will keep up to 10,800 troops in Afghanistan for the first few months of 2015 and then restart the drawdown, which is scheduled to reach 5,500 troops by the end of next year.
"(President Obama) has provided U.S. military commanders the flexibility to manage any temporary force shortfall that we might experience for a few months as we allow for coalition troops to arrive in theater," Hagel said at a joint news conference at the presidential palace with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani. "But the president's authorization will not change our troops' missions, or the long-term timeline for our drawdown."
The U.S. decided to keep the additional forces in the country temporarily because planned troop commitments by U.S. allies for a NATO train-and-assist mission starting in January have been slow to materialize.
