Malcolm Turnbull leaves door open to Afghanistan extension

Australia has left the door open to prolonged military involvement in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama, center, standing with Vice President Joe Biden, right, listens as Diana Calderon, a student who has benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, speaks at a reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, for Hispanic Heritage Month and the 25th anniversary of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Australia has left the door open to prolonged military involvement in Afghanistan following US President Barack Obama’s decision to maintain a 5500-strong counter-terrorism and training force beyond 2017, reversing a key commitment to end America’s war by the end of his presidency.

Mr Obama said yesterday the US would keep its 9800-strong force in Afghanistan until the end of next year, drawing down to 5500 in 2017 in an acknowledgment that “Afghan forces are not as strong as they need to be”.

“As your commander-in-chief I believe this mission is vital to our national security interests in preventing terrorist attacks against our citizens and our nation,” he said. “I will not allow Afghanistan to be used as a safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again.”

Mr Obama came to office in 2009 vowing to lead the US out of war, and had planned to reduce America’s military footprint in ­Afghanistan by 2017 to an embassy force of 1000.

However, the policy reversal became almost inevitable after the capture of Kunduz late last month — a blow to the NATO-trained ­Afghan Security Forces that have struggled against multiple insurgency fronts, including an emerging Islamic State threat.

Kunduz was the insurgency’s biggest victory since the US invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001. While the city was recaptured with US air support and the backing of international special forces, the US was accused of a war crime when its aircraft bombed a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital, killing 22 staff and patients.

From a peak of 140,000 US and NATO forces in 2011, there are now fewer than 17,000 inter­national troops in Afghanistan.

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said yesterday he would seek support from NATO allies to renew or adjust their military contributions to the US-led coalition.

“I’ve already initiated consultations with key allies to secure their continued support for this mission,” Dr Carter said.

Within hours, Germany said it would extend its commitment.

Malcolm Turnbull indicated yesterday he too would consider an Australian contribution to the extended Afghanistan mission.

“We will work very closely with the United States, we’ll consider the decision they’ve taken,” the Prime Minister said. “It recognises the reality of the security situation in the field and we’ll obviously be consulting closely with our American allies on that.”

Australia withdrew the bulk of its military force — which reached 1550 at its 2011 peak — in December 2013 when it pulled out of ­Oruzgan province, leaving about 400 military personnel in Afghanistan as trainers and advisers.

In the 22 months since then, ­security has spiralled downwards with large pockets of the impoverished southern province now under Taliban control.

Mr Obama insisted he was “not disappointed” in the decision, which will allow the military to maintain bases at Bagram Airfield outside Kabul, in Kandahar to the south and Jalalabad to the east. All are critical to counter-­terrorism operations there.

Mr Obama has faced intensive lobbying from the Pentagon and US Defence Department in recent months, as well as Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, all of whom have argued Afghan ­forces are not yet capable of ­defending the country alone.

Following the ­announce­ment yesterday, the State Department was working hard to talk up security progress in Afghanistan, pointing out “important milestones” such as the decimation of core al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan and in the region and the first democratic transfer of power.

But the reality is that large parts of the countryside are now controlled either by the Taliban, al-Qa’ida-allied Haqqani network or militants loyal to the emerging Islamic State.

Even in the capital Kabul, a tense city rife with rumours of an impending Taliban takeover, ­diplomats and UN officials are largely in lockdown and transported by helicopter.