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Afghanistan war far from over: US


The United States says the war in Afghanistan is far from over even after the announced death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

I don’t think the war (in Afghanistan) is over. I don’t think the loss of bin Laden will cause us to change our strategy,” Major General John Campbell, the commander of US-led NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan, said on Tuesday.

Campbell also claimed that bin Laden’s death could spur more attacks on US soldiers in Afghanistan.

The remarks come less than two months before the timeline Washington had announced for the “limited” drawdown of its troops nearly a decade after the occupation of Afghanistan.

The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 with the aim of toppling the Taliban government, claiming the militants had refused to hand over bin Laden.

According to US media reports, many US lawmakers now insist that the time for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan has arrived, arguing that the main aim of the US troop deployment to Afghanistan was to kill or capture bin Laden.

Meanwhile, the commander of British troops in Afghanistan, General James Bucknall, has said the West will not abandon the Asian country even after a final deadline for the handover of security to Afghan troops in 2014.

Until we have made it clear that the international community is not going to abandon Afghanistan in the near term the insurgents will think that they can wait out the campaign,” Bucknall said.

“December 2014 is not a campaign end date but a waypoint,” he further explained.

Last Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that Britain’s strategy in Afghanistan will not change despite the death of bin Laden.

The Obama Administration had promised to begin a drawdown of troop levels in July but later announced that US forces would leave in 2014.

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