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TOP US commander in Afghanistan General Joseph Dunford today praised President Barack Obama’s decision to keep nearly 10,000 US troops in the country beyond 2014.
Gen Dunford said the decision would allow a force of 9,800 troops to finish training and equipping Afghan security forces.
“I believe that this decision was good news for the Afghan people,” Gen Dunford said.
“It eliminates the uncertainty about the future here in Afghanistan, in the region and within the coalition.”
President Obama announced plans on Tuesday to keep US troops in Afghanistan until the end of 2016.
He said that the 32,000-strong US deployment in Afghanistan would be scaled back to around 9,800 and would be reduced in stages after the end of 2015, eventually being reduced to a normal embassy presence with a security assistance component by the end of 2016.
Nato members and other US allies are also expected to commit troops, bringing the total to around 12,000.
Nato combat troops had been due to withdraw from the country by December, unless Afghanistan signed a long-delayed bilateral security agreement.
The US commitment to stay is also conditional on Afghanistan’s government signing the stalled agreement.
Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai has stalled for months and refused to sign the agreement despite promising several times to do so.
Both the candidates running to replace him — former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai — have provisionally said that they would sign the agreement.
The Taliban condemned the US announcement and said that all US forces should leave Afghanistan immediately.
“Now that Obama has announced that he will keep around 10,000 troops until the end of 2016 and continue their occupation, the Afghanistan Islamic Emirate condemns it and considers it a violation of sovereignty, religion and human rights,” the religious fighters said.
“We have clearly expressed our stance that even if one US soldier is in Afghanistan, it is not acceptable to our nation and jihad will continue.”
