Kabul welcomes Barack Obama's troop withdrawal plan
Reuters
Kabul: The Afghan government on Wednesday welcomed President Barack Obama's announcement that the United States will withdraw 34,000 troops from the war-torn country over the next year.
"We welcome this," defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. "We will take all security responsibilities by the end of 2013. "Our troops will replace them."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has long supported the scheduled withdrawal of US and NATO combat troops by the end of 2014, saying Afghan forces are capable of taking responsibility for the fight against Taliban insurgents.
Obama, who made the troop withdrawal announcement during his State of the Union address, said the draw-down would continue and "by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over".
The Taliban dismissed the troop pull-out as insufficient. "The problem is not going to be solved with reducing or increasing the number of troops," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
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