US to withdraw troops from Afghanistan

President Barack Obama has announced the withdrawal of 10,000 US troops from Afghanistan this year and another 23,000 by the end of September 2012.



Speaking from the White House yesterday, Obama said it was the beginning of the United States’ effort to wind down the war.



Obama's announcement comes, after a month-long strategy review of the exit of the forces he sent to the country at the end of 2009 as part of a surge.



The reductions are larger and faster than military commanders had advised.



They told the president that the recent security gains were fragile and reversible, and had urged him to keep troop numbers high until 2013.

That would have given them another full fighting season.