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| Obama to announce 34,000 troops out of Afghanistan | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| President Barack Obama will announce in his State of the Union speech 34,000 US troops will leave Afghanistan by early 2014, a White House official has said. | |
| The move would effectively halve the current US troop levels in the country from about 66,000. | |
| The US will end combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but it is unclear how large a residual training force will remain behind. | The US will end combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but it is unclear how large a residual training force will remain behind. |
| Mr Obama is not expected to address post-2014 troop levels in the speech. | |
| The US president and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, agreed in January to speed the handover of combat operations to Afghan forces. | The US president and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, agreed in January to speed the handover of combat operations to Afghan forces. |
| The White House has previously signalled it favours keeping up to 9,000 troops in Afghanistan after the combat mission ends. | The White House has previously signalled it favours keeping up to 9,000 troops in Afghanistan after the combat mission ends. |
| But administration officials have also said they would consider leaving no troops in the country. | But administration officials have also said they would consider leaving no troops in the country. |
| US troop levels in Afghanistan peaked at about 100,000 in 2010. |