Taliban claim responsibility for car bomb as US and Afghanistan reach agreement on withdrawal of US troops
4961 Min Read
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a car bomb explosion that rocked the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding dozens more and shaking windows and doors in houses several kilometres away from the blast.
The explosion came as a senior U.S. diplomat was visiting Kabul to brief Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on a draft peace accord reached with the insurgents that could see thousands of U.S. troops withdrawn from Afghanistan.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Afghanistan said Monday that the US and the Taliban have reached an agreement “in principle,” pending final approval by the President.
Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told Afghanistan’s TOLOnews that a draft agreement will see the US pull troops from five bases across Afghanistan within 135 days as long as the Taliban meets conditions set in the agreement.
If the deal proceeds, the withdrawals could mark the beginning of the end of America’s longest running war, a nearly 18-year conflict triggered by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that has cost billions in taxpayer dollars and cost more than 2,300 American lives.
The agreement could lead to the gradual draw down of all of the almost 14,000 US troops in the country, fulfilling a longstanding goal and campaign pledge of the President’s, just as the most intense period of the 2020 election campaign gets underway.
