Obama plans to keep 5,500 US troops across Afghanistan into 2017, senior administration officials told NBC News — well more than the small security force he promised last year.
The United States currently has about 9,800 troops in Afghanistan — sharply down from 100,000 that were in the country as recently as 2010. Obama said last year that he wanted to withdraw nearly all of them by the end of 2016, leaving only about 1,000 to provide security for the US Embassy in Kabul.
He is expected to make a formal announcement sometime Thursday morning that he plans to maintain 5,500 troops at bases in Bagram, Jalalabad and Kandahar into 2017 and the term of his successor, the US officials said.
Obama reconsidered after a months-long review of US policy in the region, which has included regular discussions with top Afghan leaders, including President Ashraf Ghani, one of the officials said.
The larger contingent of troops will have the same "limited mission," the officials said: counterterrorism activities against al-Qaeda and its affiliates, along with training Afghan personnel to make sure Washington has a "capable partner." They said it would cost $14.6 billion to keep the larger force in the country, while Obama's original Kabul-only presence would have cost about $10 billion.