The United States military announced today it was withdrawing 400 of its soldiers from a battle against al Qaeda fighters in east Afghanistan.
"We are going to get 400 of our troops out. I doubt if any will be going back there", a US military spokesman told reporters. Asked if the withdrawal meant the end of US involvement in the eight-day-long battle near Gardez, 150 km south of Kabul, another spokesman, Major Bryan Hilferty, said: "Of this particular phase, yes."
