Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller announced the decision Tuesday at the Pentagon. The order would reduce troops from about 4,500 in Afghanistan and from about 3,000 in Iraq less than a week before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

"We will finish this generational war and bring our men and women home," Miller, who replaced fired Secretary Mark Esper this month, told reporters at the Pentagon. The acting secretary, declining to take questions on the policy, left after reading a statement.

Speaking a few minutes after Miller, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said at the White House that "by May it is President Trump's hope that they will all come home safely and in their entirety."