Obama halts Afghanistan troop withdrawal, leaving war for successor

President Obama announced Thursday that the U.S. will halt its military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Obama also said that 9,800 American troops will remain in Afghanistan through most of 2016, and that 5,500 troops will remain stationed at military bases through 2017.

“While America’s combat mission to Afghanistan may be over, our commitment to Afghanistan and its people endures,” Obama told reporters from the White House’s Roosevelt Room. “As Commander in Chief, I will not let Afghanistan be used as a safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again. Our forces remain engaged in two narrow but critical missions: training Afghan forces and supporting counter-terrorism operations against Al-Qaeda.”

The Taliban seized the city of Kunduz in September. The Times reports that the Taliban’s presence in Afghanistan is currently more widespread than it has been at any point since 2001, the year that the ongoing American military conflict in the country began.