Trump to announce reduction of troop numbers in Iraq

President Trump plans to announce a reduction of US forces in Iraq on Wednesday, a senior administration official told Reuters.

The announcement will be the first of at least two relating to the pairing back of troops in the Middle East in the coming days. The president is also planning to shrink the number of soldiers in Afghanistan as well, according to the official.

There are currently about 5,200 troops in Iraq, sent to fight the Islamic State. Trump is looking to reduce that number by about a third over the course of the next few months, an administration official said last month.

Trump told Axios this July that he hopes to cut the number of US troops in Afghanistan roughly in half from the current level of 8,600.

The announcements come as Trump has been busy denying reports that he had dismissed fallen soldiers as “losers” and “suckers,” as first reported in The Atlantic last week.

Trump is currently a tight presidential race against former Vice President Joe Biden, slightly trailing his Democratic rival in major polls.

With Post wires