WASHINGTON – White House has finally responded over troops withdrawalreports from Afghanistan.
Donald Trump hasn’t ordered the Pentagon to withdraw troops fromAfghanistan, a White House spokesman said, contradicting reports last weekthat he’s directed the military to pull 7,000 soldiers out of a conflicthe’s long criticised, Bloomberg reported.
“The president has not made a determination to drawdown US militarypresence in Afghanistan and he has not directed the Department of Defenseto begin the process of withdrawing US personnel from Afghanistan,” GarrettMarquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in an emailedstatement on Friday.
The statement came more than a week after a US defence official, who askednot to be identified discussing the troop plans, said the Pentagon willwithdraw 7,000 of about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan. That decision waswidely reported in media outlets, including by Bloomberg News.
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But the US commander of international forces in Afghanistan, General ScottMiller, said Sunday he hadn’t received any orders to change troop levels inthe country, according to Voice of America — a statement the NSC appearedto belatedly confirm on Friday.
