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Hagel: More troops to stay in Afghanistan than planned

06 December 2014 18:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Saturday the United States will keep a larger force in Afghanistan than previously planned for the first part of 2015, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Speaking at a press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmad Zai, the outgoing Pentagon chief said as many as 1,000 more troops would remain in Afghanistan, bringing the US troop levels to a total of 10,800. The original plan was for 9,800 US troops to stay in the country after 2014.

Hagel said the new surge was not because of a recent spate of attacks by the Taliban.

The war in Afghanistan, which began in October 2001 with the goal of removing the Taliban from power, has become the longest war in US history.

"The Taliban are going to continue to have pockets of resurgence, and it's predictable that they would do everything they possibly could to disrupt" the new Afghan government, Hagel told reporters aboard a military aircraft before landing in Kabul for his fourth and last trip to Afghanistan as defense secretary.

Hagel is scheduled to hold talks with top Afghan officials in Kabul, including President Ghani, and the government’s chief executive officer, Abdullah Abdullah.

The Pentagon chief visited the war-torn country a year ago and rejected to meet then-President Hamid Karzai after the Afghan leader refused to sign a bilateral security agreement.

Under a new deal, the US and NATO will end the current combat mission and begin a new military mission focused on training Afghan security forces and counterterrorism operations.