Obama declared end of U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan

The U.S. President Barak Obama confirmed end of U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan on Saturday while speaking during his visit from American troops who has returned from Afghanistan at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

“Now, this month, in just two weeks, the transition that we’re making in Afghanistan will be complete. Afghans will take full responsibility for their security. This month, after more than 13 years, our combat mission in Afghanistan will be over. This month, America’s war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end,” President Obama said.

He noted that nearly 180,000 troops were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since he has been elected as the President of the United States and it will decrease to 15,000 by the end of December 2014.

In addition he declared that Americans have ended a long and liable war in Afghanistan and again emphasized on their commitments for Afghanistan.

He said,” Even as our combat mission ends, our commitment to Afghanistan endures. We’ll continue to have a limited military presence there because we’ve got to keep training and equipping Afghan forces, and we’ve got to conduct counterterrorism missions because there are still remnants of al Qaeda there. After all the sacrifices you’ve made, we want to preserve the gains that you’ve made. We want a stable and secure Afghanistan.”

U.S. and NATO troops closed their operational command in Afghanistan last week and the U.S. will start their new mission called the Resolute Support Mission to equip, train, assist and advise Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) with 10,800 troops.