US to start withdrawing 4,000 troops from Afghanistan starting next week

Pentagon officials told the media on December 14 that the US has planned to withdraw around 4,000 of its servicemen from Afghanistan next week. The withdrawal will leave between 8,000 and 9,000 US troops in war-torn Afghanistan. The total number of servicemen placed in the middle-east country amounts to 12,000 and 13,000 troops. The move comes in the wake of resumption of the dialogue between Washington and the Taliban. The exact date of withdrawal is yet to be disclosed yet it was revealed that the withdrawal will occur in phases.

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Khalilzad indicates pause in talks

The special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad rejoined diplomatic talks with the Taliban which had broken down in September when Trump cancelled direct talks. Moreover, Taliban announced last week that the talks with the US had resumed in Doha after a three-month hiatus. On the other hand, Ambassador Khalilzad said that the US was "taking a brief pause" in talks due to an attack near Bagram airfield that killed two Afghan civilians and wounded 70 more this week.

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US-Taliban hang by thread

The US has purportedly resumed talks with the Taliban in Qatar on December 7, three months after Donald Trump abruptly halted diplomatic efforts and called it "dead." The talks in Doha focused on the reduction of violence through a ceasefire and intra-Afghan negotiations. Donald Trump had confirmed the resumption of talks, however, had refused to give a timeline for the drawdown of US troops.  

"Yes," Trump told a small group of reporters at the Bagram Air Field on November 29. The Taliban had called the decision to abolish the talks as 'unbelievable' and further went on to say that Trump's 'disappointing' tweets 'damaged his credibility.' The decision to call off the peace negotiation with the Taliban came after Donald Trump called off the meeting with the Taliban after being on the 'threshold' of the agreement. "They (talks with the Taliban) are dead. As far as I'm concerned, they're dead," Trump told reporters at the White House in September.

Read: 'Brief Pause' In US-Taliban Talks After Suicide Attack, Announces Envoy Khalilzad

(With inputs from agencies)

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