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WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The Obama administration expects to unveil at least some findings of its Afghanistan war review in the second half of December or possibly the first weeks of the new year, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.
The assessment of President Barack Obama's strategy in the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan will be closely watched at home and abroad to see whether he is sticking to his pledge to start a troop drawdown in July 2011.
Ahead of the review, U.S. officials have been offering more upbeat assessments of a war widely perceived as going badly for the United States and its NATO allies nine years after U.S.-led forces invaded to topple the Taliban for sheltering al Qaeda.
"We'll have some announcements or some roll-out for both the Congress and for the public," the official told reporters. "But we don't yet have those plans firmly in hand."
The official said the release of the findings was likely be in "the second half of December, perhaps into the first weeks of the new year."
The report will strictly examine how the current strategy is working and will not recommend any new policies, the official said.
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