NATO will keep some 12,000 troops in Afghanistan for an extra year in 2016 to prevent the country again becoming a terrorist safe haven.
NATO’s Resolute Support advice and training mission was supposed to end this year but Taliban battlefield successes, especially their recent brief capture of the northern city of Kunduz, prompted a radical re-think.
US-led NATO invaded Afghanistan in 2001 shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks to oust the Taliban from Kabul. US troop numbers peaked at around 90,000.The alliance ended combat operations at the end of 2014, leaving in place the Resolute Support mission.