Esper says U.S. will cut troop levels in Afghanistan to less than 5,000 by November

The United States will reduce troop levels in Afghanistan to less than 5,000 by the end of November, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday.

Esper made his remarks in an interview broadcast Aug. 8 on Fox News, bolstering comments last week from President Donald Trump that the number will be cut to roughly 4,000.

There currently are some 8,600 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, where Americans have fought since 2001.

The remarks from Esper and Trump come amid peace negotiations between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, aimed at ending this phase of the war that has ravaged the so-called “graveyard of empires."

Last October, Gen. Scott Miller, the four-star general in charge of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul that the U.S. troop presence had been gradually and quietly reduced over the previous year.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Just the News.