General: Troop cuts will restrict Afghan training

WASHINGTON — The ability to train and advise Afghan security forces will be constrained if the U.S. troop level there is cut to 5,500 as President Barack Obama has proposed, the senior American commander in Afghanistan said Thursday.

Army Gen. John Campbell told a Senate committee that much will depend on how quickly Afghan forces improve. If they don’t, he said, the number of U.S. troops will most likely need to increase.

Obama has said the U.S. force of 9,800 would be cut to 5,500“by theendof2016.”