The armed forces of Afghanistan are not yet ready to act independently, the US President believes

Almaty. September 29. Silkroadnews – The armed forces of Afghanistan have reached some progress coping with their tasks, yet are not ready to act independently, the US President Barack Obama said, TASS reports.

While speaking to the military audience in Fort Lee (Virginia), he reminded that, unlike Syria or Iraq, this country's authorities take a stand against «Taliban» movement, which, from time to time, fights against the «Islamic State» group.

«They still fight against «Taliban», yet still are not sufficiently effective in their operation as combat units», the US president noted.

Earlier Obama said Washington would not reduce the number of its troops to 5.5 thousand, but raise it up to 8.4 thousand troops until January 20, 2017. As NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, the United States will continue to participate in operations against the extremists. On July 9 at the NATO summit in Warsaw the Atlantic alliance extended the mandate of its «Resolute support» non-combat mission in Afghanistan for 2017.

Currently, the number of NATO troops in the country accounts for 12 thousand.