Obama: U.S. to Help Allies in al-Qaida Fight, Withdraw 34,000 Troops from Afghanistan

The United States will help its allies confront an evolving al-Qaida threat and be more transparent with the American people in the fight against terror groups, President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

Al-Qaida was now a "shadow" of the group that was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., Obama said in his annual State of the Union address.

But he warned lawmakers gathered in the imposing U.S. Congress: "Different al-Qaida affiliates and extremist groups have emerged -- from the Arabian Peninsula to Africa. The threat these groups pose is evolving."

To battle the threat, the U.S. does not need "to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad, or occupy other nations," Obama said.

"Instead, we will need to help countries like Yemen, Libya and Somalia provide for their own security, and help allies who take the fight to terrorists, as we have in Mali."

The United States has been providing support to French troops, who deployed in northern Mali last month to help the Malian army flush out al-Qaida-linked rebels who seized control of the area last year.

But amid a fierce debate about more secretive U.S. actions, Obama said Washington would not shy away from taking "direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans."

The issue burst into the spotlight after Obama was forced last week to give lawmakers access to secret documents outlining the legal justification for drone strikes that kill U.S. citizens abroad who conspire with al-Qaida.

The move came on the eve of the Senate hearing on Obama's nomination of his top White House anti-terror adviser John Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency in his second term.

Some senators had warned they would use Brennan's confirmation as leverage to force the administration to share more information on the legal and constitutional grounds for the U.S. government killing its own citizens.

Obama aides have insisted that killing al-Qaida suspects, including occasionally U.S. citizens, in hotspots like Yemen complies with U.S. law and the Constitution, even when no intelligence links the targets to specific attack plots.

Obama said the administration had worked to keep Congress "fully informed" of counterterrorism efforts.

He acknowledged though that "in our democracy, no one should just take my word that we're doing things the right way."

"So, in the months ahead, I will continue to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world," Obama added.

Obama also announced Tuesday that 34,000 U.S. troops will withdraw from Afghanistan in the next year and vowed the grueling, bloody U.S. conflict there would end by late 2014.

"After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home," Obama said, winning applause and a standing ovation from lawmakers.

The long-awaited move effectively halves the size of the current 66,000-strong U.S. force in Afghanistan, as NATO troops prepare to hand over control for security operations to some 352,000 Afghan security forces.