40K troops to leave Afghanistan by end of 2012

40K troops to leave Afghanistan by end of 2012
By Deb Riechmann and Slobodan Lekic - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 29, 2011 9:29:54 EST
KABUL, Afghanistan — Drawdown plans announced by the U.S. and more than a dozen other nations will shrink the foreign military footprint in Afghanistan by 40,000 troops at the close of next year, leaving Afghan forces increasingly on the frontlines of the decade-long war.

The United States is pulling out the most — 33,000 by the end of 2012. That's one-third of 101,000 American troops who were in Afghanistan in June, the peak of U.S. military presence in the war, according to figures provided by the Pentagon.
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