US troops could stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014: Crocker

The American ambassador to Afghanistan on Saturday raised the possibility that United States combat troops could stay in the country beyond the 2014 deadline that the White House had set for their withdrawal.The ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, speaking at a roundtable event with a small group of journalists, said that if the Afghan government wanted American troops to stay longer, the withdrawal could be slowed. “They would have to ask for it,” he said.“I could certainly see us saying, ‘Yeah, makes sense.’ ”He emphasized, however, that no such decision had been made.The US ambassador said that he does not think this weeks deadly suicide bombing at a Shiite shrine in Kabul will spark a sectarian war between religious groups in Afghanistan.He said that Tuesdays attack, which killed 56 people and wounded more than 160 others, might have been orchestrated by a consortium of militant groups outside the country.Crocker, who spent three years as US ambassador to Pakistan, said he could not say authoritatively that the bombing was carried by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.He said that the group was weak, and he doubted that the group had any Afghan affiliate.They were a pretty seriously weakened organization when I was there (in Pakistan), he said. It could have been a consortium, but I dont think it was a consortium that was put together in this country.