WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the U.S. will slow its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, maintaining 9,800 troops in the country through the end of 2015 instead of cutting the number by about half as originally planned.
"Afghanistan remains a very dangerous place," Obama said at a news conference after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's first visit to the White House since his election six months ago. Obama added that the size of the U.S. troop presence for 2016 will be decided later this year.
Ghani asked Obama to slow the withdrawal because Afghan security forces are bracing for a tough spring fighting season and are contending with Islamic State fighters looking to recruit on their soil.
The original plan was to cut the U.S. force to 5,500 by the end of this year. Obama said he still intends to complete the drawdown by the end of 2016 and that the U.S. transition out of a combat role has not changed.
"We want to make sure we're doing everything we can to help Afghan security forces succeed so we don't have to go back," Obama said.
While the decision will mean that some U.S. soldiers who had expected to return home will rotate back into Afghanistan "for a few extra months," Obama said, the additional time will be "well worth it."
Ghani said the slower U.S. troop withdrawal "will be used to accelerate reforms, to ensure that the Afghan National Security Forces are much better led, equipped, trained and are focused on their fundamental mission." He added that he was pleased to say that "the departure of 120,000 international troops has not brought about the security gap or collapse that was often anticipated."
In Washington this week, Ghani is making his case that he's a reliable partner worthy of American support, despite his fractured government and an array of problems still riddling Afghanistan's military.
For Obama, Ghani represents the last, best hope to make good on the president's promise to end America's longest war by the time he leaves office, keeping just 1,000 or so troops at the embassy to coordinate security.
But also at stake is the future of U.S. bases in Jalalabad and in Kandahar, where the Taliban had their capital until 2001.
Administration officials said Tuesday that the decision to maintain troop levels was partly designed to bolster U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan, including the CIA's ability to conduct secret drone strikes and other paramilitary operations from the two military bases.
Reducing the military force by half from its current level, as planned, would have meant closing the bases and relocating many of the CIA's personnel and its contractors, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on classified operations.
Jalalabad has been the primary base used by the CIA to conduct drone strikes against militants in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The drone operations were relocated there after the Pakistani government kicked the CIA out of an air base inside Pakistan.
The pace of drone strikes there has declined significantly since the early years of the Obama administration, but intelligence officials have lobbied to keep enough of a military presence in Afghanistan to allow the drone program to continue.
Ghani also had requested that the two U.S. bases stay open as long as possible.
Ghani's predecessor Hamid Karzai had refused to sign security agreements needed for the U.S. to leave any troops in Afghanistan. Ghani signed them within days of taking office and has sought to differentiate himself by showing appreciation for U.S. investment in his military -- more than $60 billion so far.
On Tuesday, he thanked American servicemen and civilian contractors for their efforts in his country. "I'd also like to thank the American taxpayer for his and her hard-earned dollars," he said.
Ghani took office in 2014 after a contested election that led him and chief rival Abdullah Abdullah to agree to share power, with Abdullah assuming the role of chief executive. The pair made the trip to the U.S. together in a show of unity.
Yet political tensions have prevented the leaders from putting together a full Cabinet, half a year into their term.
extremist threats
Obama's decision to slow the troop withdrawal comes as Afghanistan and nearby countries face growing threats from extremist groups, which have seized territory and carried out attacks in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.
The proliferation of groups like the Islamic State have forced Obama to re-evaluate his military strategy in the country, where the challenge previously has come mainly from the Taliban, which also have stepped up attacks.
Underscoring the fragile security situation in the country, gunmen in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 13 people during a midnight assault on a highway Tuesday, authorities said.
The attack happened in Wardak province's Sayad Abad district, where Taliban fighters hold much territory and launch frequent attacks on security forces. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault, which happened after several recent attacks targeting buses in the country.
The gunmen opened fire on three vehicles in the attack, including a bus traveling from Kabul to Ghazni province, said Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor. He said the gunfire killed 13 and wounded at least two civilians.
Meanwhile, two intelligence officials in Pakistan said a suspected U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province killed at least nine militants with the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Islam. That group recently announced it would join forces with the Pakistani Taliban to fight government forces in that country.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to discuss the strike. It wasn't immediately possible to corroborate their claims about the strike in the rural, mountainous region, though drone strikes have killed civilians in the region in the past.
Also Tuesday, thousands of people marched through Kabul, the Afghan capital, demanding justice for a woman who was beaten to death by a mob after being falsely accused of burning a Koran.
Men and women of all ages carried banners bearing the bloodied face of Farkhunda, a 27-year-old religious scholar killed last week by the mob. Farkhunda, who went by one name like many Afghans, was beaten, run over with a car and burned before her body was thrown into the Kabul River.
The demonstrators called for action not only against her attackers but also against officials and religious leaders who had initially said Farkhunda's killing was justifiable if she had burned pages of the Muslim holy book.
Organizers of Tuesday's march -- the second protest over the slaying in as many days -- estimated that up to 3,000 people took part, calling it one of the biggest demonstrations in Kabul's history.
The Interior Ministry said 28 people had been arrested and 13 police officers suspended as part of investigations. The spokesman for the Kabul police, Hashmat Stanikzai, was fired over comments he made on social media supporting Farkhunda's killers. Stanikzai could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Taliban issued a statement Tuesday, condemning the attack and calling it a conspiracy that uses "the name of the [Koran] to kill innocent civilians." It also extended condolences to Farkhunda's family.
Information for this article was contributed by Josh Lederman, Robert Burns, Amir Shah, Ishtiaq Mahsud, Rahim Faiez and Lynne O'Donnell of The Associated Press; by Toluse Olorunnipa and Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News; and by Michael D. Shear, Mark Mazzetti, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Matthew Rosenberg of The New York Times.
A Section on 03/25/2015