Britain’s senior commander in Afghanistan has said hasty withdrawals of foreign soldiers could undermine recent successes there against the insurgency, a newspaper said on Tuesday. “The coalition has had a good winter,” Lieutenant-General James Bucknall told The Daily Telegraph. “We have got to hold on to what we have gained and hold that over this fighting season.” “What we are doing is reaping the benefits of having the resources in place to match the strategy we have always had,” Bucknall, who also is deputy head of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to begin a gradual withdrawal of the 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in July as Washington takes steps to end a costly, unpopular war nearly a decade after the Taliban government was toppled. But the United States has warned European nations against a precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan that could threaten the headway made in turning back a tenacious Taliban insurgency. Britain plans to withdraw around 400 troops from Afghanistan in the next nine months, trimming its force to 9,500.
