Off the wire
• Indian PM Modi extends Eid greetings to Pakistani counterpart  • Roundup: Business subdued in Zimbabwe's capital as peaceful strike underway  • Brunei's Sultan celebrates Hari Raya with foreign delegates  • Urgent: Obama to maintain 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan into 2017  • Feature: Young scholars to launch open letter against South China Sea arbitration  • U.S. stocks open lower ahead of Fed minutes  • Sri Lanka to amend laws to allow witnesses to testify from overseas  • 11 arrested for alleged mafia links in Milan Expo  • Japan's ruling LDP split over Tokyo governor race  • MEPs adopt 1st EU-wide cyber security law  
You are here: 　 Home

1st Ld: Obama to maintain 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan into 2017

Xinhua, July 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he will leave 8,400 American troops in Afghanistan into 2017, slowing the planned drawdown of the U.S. military presence in the country.

Obama said that the security situation in Afghanistan remains "precarious" and that the country's security forces are still "not as strong as they need to be."

His original plan was to draw down U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 5,500 by the end of the year. Endi