US President Barack Obama will keep 5,500 US troops in Afghanistan till 2017 41510156.

Reporters were briefed ahead of the announcement by senior Obama administration officials.

It is at least the second time that the US has had to revise its exit strategy in the face of surges by the Taliban, who, as well as temporarily taking Kunduz in the north, control large swaths of the countryside.

The president’s decision came after an “extensive months-long review” that included regular discussions with Afghanistan’s leaders, his national security team and U.S. commanders in the field, a senior administration official said.

Obama will also slow the pace of the reduction of American forces and plans to maintain the current U.S. force of 9,800 through “most of 2016,” said the official, who spoke anonymously to preview the president’s announcement.

The post-2016 force would still be focused on training and advising the Afghan army, with a special emphasis on its elite counterterror forces. The United States would also maintain a significant counterterrorism capability of drones and Special Operations forces to strike al-Qaeda and other militants who may be plotting attacks against the United States.

The revised troop plans came just weeks after the Afghan forces were driven from Kunduz, the first major city to fall to the Taliban since the war began in 2001. The Afghans, with some support from U.S. planes and Special Operations advisers, have in recent days been able to take the city back from the Taliban.