Afghan troop pullout advice due soon: Gates

The top NATO commander in Afghanistan will soon deliver his advice on how many US troops should be withdrawn in the nine-year-old war, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday. “In Afghanistan… I have not yet received General (David) Petraeus’s recommendations. I expect that they will be coming in the not-too-distant future,” Gates told reporters after talks with British counterpart Liam Fox. President Barack Obama has promised to begin a drawdown in July of the roughly 100,000 American troops deployed in Afghanistan,but officials have yet to say how many forces will be pulled out.Most senior military leaders are wary of a rapid withdrawal inAfghanistan but some advisers in the White House and Democratsin Congress want to see more than a merely symbolic pullout,amid growing public opposition to the war.Petraeus and other commanders have reported major progress in operations in the south, the Taliban’s birthplace, pushing back insurgents following a surge of US and allied troops.