10,000 US troops leave Afghanistan

President Barack Obama's order to withdraw 10,000 US troops from Afghanistan this year has been accomplished, a little more than a week before the end-of-year deadline, military officials said.The drawdown is the first step in the plan to wind down the war, transfer security to Afghan forces and end the combat role for international troops by the end of 2014.It also gives the Obama administration a second war-related accomplishment to tout this month - coming just a week after US officials marked the end of the war in Iraq as the last convoy of American soldiers rumbled out of that country into Kuwait.Officials say there are now 91,000 US troops in Afghanistan - down from the peak of 101,000 in June.In December 2009, Mr Obama announced he was sending an additional 33,000 US troops to Afghanistan in a bid to beat back the escalating Taliban insurgency and change the course of the war.Six months ago, declaring that the "tide of war is receding," Mr Obama said he would withdraw 10,000 troops by the end of this year, and another 23,000 by the end of next summer.

Barack Obama Talks Payroll Tax Cuts, Blames Republicans, Sounds

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