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(CNN) – Acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller announced Tuesday that the US will reduce troop numbers in Afghanistan to 2,500 and 2,500 in Iraq by January 15, 2021. Miller said this troop repositioning “does not amount to change. ‘with policies or objectives.
There are currently approximately 4,500 US troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 troops in Iraq.
CNN reported Monday that this announcement was expected.
A senior defense official said the announcement was “consistent” with President Trump’s public announcement earlier this year and “consistent with his promise to the American people.”
WATCH: US military expects Trump to issue order to plan more military withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq
The sweeping changes at the Pentagon last week left Trump loyalists in office, and insiders told CNN’s Jake Tapper last week that the White House-led purge of the Department of Defense may have been motivated by the fact. that former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and his team were rejecting a premature withdrawal from Afghanistan that would take place before the required conditions on the ground were met.
The official said there was “no capacity reduction,” calling the change a “collaborative” decision, and declined to address a recent Pentagon memo that conditions on the ground in Afghanistan did not justify further reductions.
Prior to his dismissal, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper sent a confidential memorandum earlier this month to the White House stating that it was the chain of command’s unanimous recommendation that the United States not further reduce its troop presence in Afghanistan until the conditions were met, sources familiar with the memo told CNN.
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