Sources: U.S. to pull 7,000 troops from Afghanistan

Move likely a first step to end U.S. role in 17-year-old war.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is withdraw- ing roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, two defense offi- cials said Thursday, around half of what the U.S. military has there now.

Trump made the decision at the same time he decided he was pulling U.S. forces out of Syria, one official said. The move is likely one of the first steps to end the United States’ involvement in the 17-year-old war.

The 14,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan are divided between training and advising Afghan forces and a counterterror mission against groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaida. The reduction, one official said, is in an effort to make Afghan forces more reliant on their own troops and not Western support.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the development.

Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Currently, American air- strikes are at levels not seen since the height of the war, when tens of thousands of U.S. troops were spread throughout the country. That air support, officials say, con- sists mostly of propping up Afghan troops while they try to hold territory from a resurgent Taliban.

More than 25,000 Afghan troops have died since the U.S. military ended com- bat operations in late 2014.

ADAM FERGUSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES U.S. Army soldiers oversee Afghan National Army trainees at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province in 2016. The Trump administration plans to pull some 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in early 2019, two defense officials said.