"The threat from al Qaeda's core leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been significantly addressed through the efforts to dismantle the al Qaeda leadership in that part of the world. That does not mean that there are no traces of al Qaeda. Of course, there continues to be threats emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan," a senior Administration official said.
"But we do believe that we have struck significant blows against al Qaeda's leadership," said the official, whose remarks came as the US President announced that the US will have 9,800 troops in Afghanistan at the beginning of 2015 and complete withdrawn by the end of 2016.
"However, we do want to maintain a counter-terrorism capability precisely because we don't want al Qaeda to regenerate. We don't want there to be significantly enhanced space for them to operate. That means we're going to continue our counter-terrorism operations in the region," the official said.
It also means that we're going to train Afghan National Security Forces to help us in mitigating that threat, the senior administration official told reporters.
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On Afghanistan, the official said the US believes that the long-term solution towards Afghan security is not US forces.
"Ultimately, we believe and have confidence that the Afghan National Security Forces can be in the lead and can mitigate that violence and can provide for that security."
It doesn't mean it will be perfect security, but it does mean that the Afghan National Security Forces, after years of training and assistance, are prepared to step forward, he added.