"If you're the Taliban, Christmas has come early," a senior foreign official in the Afghan capital told AFP on the condition of anonymity. "Frankly speaking we weren't expecting that immediate US response," the official told AFP from an unknown location in northwest Pakistan. There will be a significant withdrawal," the American official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Afghan forces have been taking what experts describe as "unsustainable" casualties since NATO pulled its combat forces out of Afghanistan at the end of 2014. The United States has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan working either with a NATO mission to support Afghan forces or in separate counter-terrorism operations.

Source: Bangkok Post December 21, 2018 08:48 UTC