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Stars and Stripes
Published: December 28, 2014
KABUL, Afghanistan – After 13 years, the U.S.-led military coalition is officially shifting their long military mission to a limited presence focused on training and advising.
The changeover, which will be marked by a ceremony Sunday, is largely symbolic – the combat role of international troops has been steadily reduced over the past two years – but President Barack Obama has hailed it as the end of America’s war in Afghanistan.
But there will still be nearly 11,000 U.S. service members in Afghanistan in 2015 and while the focus is to be on training and advising, foreign troops will still have the ability to go after al Qaeda and Taliban in certain circumstances. At the height of the war, there were 100,000 American troops in the country.
The shift comes as many say violence has reached its highest levels of the war – more civilians and Afghan troops died in 2014 than in any other year since the U.S. invasion in 2001 – and the Afghan security forces are now largely on their own to battle a still entrenched Taliban.
Continued international air support, intelligence, and logistics help is seen as key to bolstering the Afghan forces.
Druzin.heath@stripes.com; Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes
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