US army to ask Obama to slow down Afghan withdrawal

WASHINGTON - The US Army will ask President Barack Obama to slow down the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan as they need more time to complete the work there, a media report said.

General David Petraeus, who took command of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan in July, would tell Obama soon that the troops need more time to complete the work in the war-torn country, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The military has said it has only begun making breakthroughs in the past 12 months - despite the US mission in Afghanistan beginning in 2001.

Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron both said that troops will begin leaving Afghanistan in July 2011 ahead of a total military pullout by 2015.

The military is reportedly concerned over the plans in Afghanistan after fears were raised that the Iraq pullout was happening too quickly.

American troops will end combat operations in Iraq at the end of August. However, the chief of the Iraqi army warned that the US army was needed in the country for a decade more.

Petraeus, who headed the US campaign in Iraq, took over in Afghanistan after his predecessor, Stanley McChrystal, was forced to leave after criticising Vice President Joe Biden in an interview.