US to drawdown troops in Afghanistan ahead of schedule

The US will draw down its troops in Afghanistan to 8,600, ahead of schedule on the commitment to drawdown troops that it made in the US-Taliban peace deal signed earlier this year, sources have told CNN.

The Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the drawdown somewhat, one US defense official said. There has been a pause in a significant amount of military training activity due to the virus, which has made it easier to send some US troops home.

CNN writes reporting a US official, “The US has until mid-July to fulfill its pledge to reduce troops to 8,600, from the total 12,000 to 13,000 in the country earlier this year. But it could hit that goal in a few weeks – months before the deadline.”

To prevent the spread of the Coronavirus earlier this year, the US-led international coalition in Afghanistan temporarily paused the return of some service members.

However, recently American news outlets reported that President Trump had been planning to pull out all US troops from Afghanistan prior to the initial deadline reasoning the Coronavirus pandemic.

The US troop drawdown – eventually full withdrawal – is a key element in the US-Taliban agreement for bringing peace to the country, aimed to start the Intra-Afghan negotiations and releasing as many as 5,000 Taliban prisoners – none of these, though, has come into effect to this date.

Nonetheless, the efforts remain active at all ends. The nation is looking forward to seeing whether all this end fruitfully for the country.