President Trump has ordered the withdrawal of 2,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq before he leaves office in January.

Tuesday’s order means cutting American forces in Afghanistan by 2,000 and in Iraq by 500, leaving 2,500 in each country, by Jan. 15.

It was announced by acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who called the pullouts a “repositioning of forces” and promised to protect “our fighting men and women, our partners in the intelligence community, our diplomatic corps, and our superb allies.”

NEW: Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced today that the U.S. would draw its troop levels in both Afghanistan and Iraq down to 2,500 by January. https://t.co/NE2QWJL0XO

— Axios (@axios) November 17, 2020

“The drawdown order — which contradicts months of previous advice from top Defense officials — comes only a week after Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and replaced him with Miller,” reports The Hill.

“Esper’s ouster also set off a leadership purge at the Pentagon, with several of those leaving replaced with Trump loyalists,” The Hill says.

More than 6,900 American troops have died in the two countries over the past 18 years, since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 terror attacks in New York and Washington D.C.

“The decision in Afghanistan comes about nine months after the Trump administration and the Taliban reached a deal that will remove all U.S. troops there by next May if certain conditions are met,” says the Washington Post.

Despite that U.S.-Taliban agreement, critics warn that Afghanistan could once again become a home for international terrorists.

The US-Taliban agreement is a US withdrawal agreement, not a peace accord. Nor can anyone have any confidence that Afghanistan will not again become a terrorist haven. Yes, the US over-reached in Afghanistan, but the right policy now is not to under-reach. https://t.co/JYD5ykMp3Y

— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) November 17, 2020

Trump’s planned orders were first reported Monday by CNN, which quotes a “senior defense official” as claiming that the withdrawals will result in “no reduction” in military capability in either country.

That CNN source refused to address a recent Pentagon memo saying that “conditions on the ground in Afghanistan did not warrant additional drawdowns.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a new report from the Pentagon’s inspector general said the terrorist group al Qaeda supports both Trump’s plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and the U.S. agreement with the Taliban, CNN says.

The news network noted that the Taliban have carried out multiple attacks on American and coalition personnel since the agreement to reduce or halt the violence was signed in February.