US Army to cut 40,000 soldiers

The army in the United States would have 40,000 fewer soldiers over the next two years, the newspaper "USA Today" reported. The army also planned to reduce civilian jobs by 17,000.

According to the plan, the army would be down to 450,000 soldiers by the end of the 2017 budget year, although there were fears that cutting back in this manner could make winning a war difficult for the US.

The US Army currently has 490,000 soldiers. The downsizing would reduce the number to its lowest since the US entered World War II.

The army planned to announce the cuts soon, a defense official told news agency AFP. The government's budget cuts, released by the Pentagon in February this year, would begin in October.

If these cuts, known as sequestration, took place in October, the army would have to reduce another 30,000 soldiers, "USA Today" reported. The reductions would affect brigades stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.

Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, told USA Today that the cuts made "no strategic sense." According to the newspaper, the army had mentioned in its budget documents that reducing the number of troops to below 450,000 soldiers could prevent the US from winning a war.

The report comes one day after President Barack Obama warned of the war against "Islamic State" militants in Iraq and Syria. The fight would "not be quick," Obama said, adding that this was a "long-term campaign."

The Pentagon had announced in June that it was sending 450 additional soldiers to assist local troops in recapturing western Iraqi city of Ramadi. However, more needed to be done to train moderate rebel Sunni tribal fighters and government forces in Syria, Obama said.

mg/jil (AFP, Reuters)