Is Obama rethinking his vow to bring troops home from Afghanistan?

Returning residents are expressing fears that Taliban militants will return to the capital of Kunduz Province after the Taliban said that it had the ability to do so. Other officials and tribal elders estimate that the number is much higher.

Acting on intelligence provided by the Afghan spy agency, the National Directorate of Security, American drones targeted areas held by ISIL in as many as 21 operations since July, killing around 300 fighters, including several of their senior commanders, according to Afghan officials.

US President Barack Obama is looking at the possibilities of a long-term large presence of American troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016, in the backdrop of the temporarily takeover of Kunduz city by the Taliban.

At the same time, Al Qaeda operatives continue to make safe havens in the country’s mountains and the Islamic State is reportedly growing its presence in the region, as disaffected Taliban fighters are recruited into “the caliphate”. If steps are taken to reinforce the U.S. troops in Afghanistan, then Obama will abandon his goal to bring home nearly all the USA troops before leaving office. But the Taliban has made significant advances in recent months – a recent United Nations report found that the group’s insurgents are more widespread in Afghanistan than at any time since 2001.

“Afghan security forces are in control of the whole city”, said Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jungulbagh, provincial police chief of Kunduz.

War ravaged Afghanistan, the “graveyard of empires”, continues to descend into growing political instability and recurrent fratricidal conflict.

There are now 9,800 USA troops in Afghanistan, part of an global force of 13,000, participating in counterterrorism and training missions.

At a press briefing last week, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest outlined what he called “essentially two missions” of the military now in Afghanistan: one to protect national interests, and another to provide “training, advice, and assistance to Afghan security forces”.

Anonymous senior administration officials told the New York Times on Wednesday that President Obama appears increasingly willing to keep a force there at least large enough to continue its counterterrorism mission there.

“I do think that we are committed to an enduring presence in Afghanistan to make good on the promise, on the tremendous incredibly skilled effort that we’ve made to date”, Carter said.

He argued that Afghanistan may be the most democratic country in the Muslim world today, and that its government was unambiguously the most pro-American.

A few shops have reopened for business two weeks after the city fell to an assault by the Taliban and allied extremist militants.