The U.S. military begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, a step forward on the Trump administration's peace deal with the Taliban. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also promises to start releasing Taliban prisoners after a delay.
In this Monday, March 9, 2020, photo, Afghanistan's Abdullah Abdullah, front left, greets his supporters after being sworn in as president in Kabul, Afghanistan. Washington moved forward Tuesday on its peace deal with the Taliban, launching its troop withdrawal, while praising Afghanistan's newly installed President Ashraf Ghani's promise to proceed with a Taliban prisoner release as well as cobble together a team to start negotiations with the insurgent group.
on Monday. Abdallah and the elections complaints commission had charged fraud in last year’s vote. The dueling inaugurations have thrown plans for talks with the Taliban into chaos, although Ghani said Tuesday that he’d start putting together a negotiating team. Currently, the U.S. has about 13,000 soldiers in Afghanistan — 8,000 of whom are involved in training and advising Afghanistan’s National Security Forces, while about 5,000 are involved in anti-terror operations and militarily supporting the Afghan army when they are requested., something agreed to in the U.S.-Taliban deal. Ghani promised Monday to announce a decree to free the prisoners, after the U.S.
Pompeo also said he “strongly opposed” the establishment of a parallel government in Kabul, despite the early signs of one emerging. Abdullah had quickly sent his vice-presidents to occupy the official offices on Monday, ahead of Ghani’s plan to send his vice presidents to their offices Tuesday.
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