Ghani: US should re-think Afghan deadline

The deadline for the final withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan might need to be reconsidered, President Ghani said in an interview broadcast in the United States on Sunday night.

While US troops recently saw their combat role officially come to an end, Ghani said it would be pragmatic to look at the proposed withdrawal date again.

"Deadlines concentrate the mind. But deadlines should not be dogmas," Ghani, who was elected last year, told the CBS program "60 Minutes."

"If both parties, or, in this case, multiple partners, have done their best to achieve the objectives, and progress is very real, then there should be willingness to re-examine a deadline."

There was no immediate comment from US officials at the White House, State Department, or the Pentagon.

Afghanistan assumed full responsibility for security from departing foreign combat troops on January 1, with the US having formally ended its 13-year mission in the country.

Maintaining security and taking on Taliban insurgents is likely to prove a tough test for the 350,000 Afghan forces now tasked with the role.

At least 3,188 Afghan civilians were killed in the increasingly bloody war against the insurgents in 2014, according to a United Nations report - making it the deadliest year on record yet for non-combatants.

The change of responsibility for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) means it will adopt a training and support role, with troop numbers cut to about 12,500 - mostly American - down from a peak of 130,000 in 2010.

Germany is to keep some 850 soldiers in the country, down from more than 5,000. Some 60 percent of Germans questioned in a recent poll said they did not believe the Afghan mission - launched in the wake of the September 11 attacks - had been worthwhile.

rc/bk (dpa, Reuters)