The US will withdraw 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany, as a rift over the Iran war widens between President Donald Trump and Europe.
Mr Trump had threatened a drawdown in forces earlier this week after sparring with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday the Iranians were humiliating the US in talks to end the war.
"This decision follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theatre requirements and conditions on the ground," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. "We expect the withdrawal to be completed over the next six to twelve months.”
US officials characterised the move as a signal of Mr Trump's discontent with the level of assistance that European allies have offered in the conflict, CBS reported.
On Saturday, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said the presence of US forces in Europe was "in our interest and in the interest of the United States", but said Europe must take greater responsibility for their own security.
"It was foreseeable that the US would withdraw troops from Europe, including Germany," Mr Pistorius said. "Germany is on the right track" in this regard, he added, pointing to greater and faster procurement of equipment.
Germany is the US military's biggest basing location in Europe, with some 35,000 active-duty military personnel, and serves as a key training hub.
A brigade combat team now in Germany will be pulled out of the country and a long-range fires battalion that the Biden administration had planned to begin deploying to Germany later this year will no longer deploy, media outlets reported.
A Nato spokesperson said the organisation is working with Washington to understand the details of the planned drawdown.
It comes as Mr Trump continues to disparage Nato and European allies for not coming to Washington's aid to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open after Iran effectively closed it. The US has set up its own blockade of the crucial waterway, through which about 20 per cent of the world's oil flows.
Mr Merz has said Germans and Europeans were not consulted before the US and Israel started attacking Iran in late February, and that he had conveyed his scepticism about the conflict directly to Mr Trump afterwards.
