President Donald Trump wants to pull troops out of Afghanistan amid the coronavirus pandemic, NBC News reports.
In recent days, the president has urged his military and national security advisers to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, according to two current and one former senior U.S. officials.
The officials told NBC News that Trump complains almost daily U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan and are now vulnerable to the pandemic.
"He is itching to get out," the former official said. "He's pushing the Pentagon on it."
U.S. defense officials say cases of the coronavirus in Afghanistan are likely to be underreported, estimating there could be at least 10 times as many cases there as the government has officially tallied.
"Afghanistan is going to have a significant coronavirus issue," a former senior U.S. official said. "It hasn't really manifested yet, but it will."
As of Monday, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health reported 1,703 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 57 deaths in a country with an estimated population of 35 million.
The officials said the military advisers have pushed back on Trump's request, telling him if they pull troops out of Afghanistan because of the coronavirus, the Pentagon will also have to withdraw from other places hit hard by the pandemic like Italy.
One senior administration official and a defense official said that while the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan because of the coronavirus has been under discussion, consolidating American forces at bases in one or two parts of the country would be a more likely option.
"There is concern from a variety of places that we could leave Afghanistan," one senior U.S. official said, pointing to concerns voiced by U.S. allies, members of Congress and U.S. military officials.
The U.S. military has been pulling troops out of Afghanistan already. Now, troops are leaving the country faster than originally planned, according to two U.S. defense officials.
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