Obama declares Afghan drawdown plan

Withdrawal begins end of this year:

US: US President Barack Obama has announced a plan to withdraw US surge troops from Afghanistan, amid increasing pressure on him to end the war.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, he declared that starting from next month the US will begin to withdraw the troops.

By the end of the year 10,000 troops will have been withdrawn and until the summer of 2012, a further 23,000 are expected to have been withdrawn, he said.

The US has some 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and over 1,500 US troops have been killed since the start of the war.

There is not yet an official number of total Afghan deaths due to the war.

“This is the beginning - but not the end - of our effort to wind down this war,” Obama said.

He also stressed that challenges still remains in the war-torn country, Reuters reported.

Additionally, he explained how, despite the death of the former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, his group remains dangerous.