Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has signed an order to reduce US troop levels in Afghanistan from 19,000 to 16,000 by next spring, The New York Times said Tuesday, quoting a senior military officer.
The troop cut is the result of Nao's decision to expand its peacekeeping force in southern Afghanistan next year.
The order Rumsfeld signed on Monday will reduce from 4,000 to 1,300 troops the portion of the Army's Fourth Brigade that was scheduled to replace the 173rd Airborne Brigade in southern Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokesman told the daily.
The reduction will bring down the number of US troops in Afghanistan to 16,000 by the end of March, said the senior military officer, who requested anonymity because the order had not been made public.
The decision, Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said, was based on recommendations from the senior US commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, and General John Abizaid, the overall US commander in the Middle East and Central Asia.