The Province

Biden pushes allies to leave Afghanista­n with U.S.

President vows to bring American troops home by 20th anniversar­y of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

- NICK ALLEN AND DANIELLE SHERIDAN

The United States is putting pressure on NATO allies including Britain to get their remaining troops out of Afghanista­n as quickly as possible alongside America.

Officials in Joe Biden's administra­tion said the Pentagon was able to get its own force, currently around 3,500, home “well in advance” of the new Sept. 11 deadline set by the president.

But the U.S. is delaying its withdrawal so it can leave together with allies, including 750 British troops, who are reliant on American support. A senior U.S. administra­tion official said the White House hoped to get allies out “in the same time frame” as its own troops. The drawdown would begin “before May 1” and Sept. 11 was an “outside date” for completing it.

“President Biden will give our military commanders the time and space they need to conduct a safe and orderly withdrawal, not just of U.S. forces but of allied forces, on the principle of `in together, out together,' ” the official said.

“We will take the time we need to execute that. And no more time than that.”

The U.S. would “co-ordinate with NATO allies and partners about a drawdown of their forces in the same time frame.”

While Canada completed its own pullout in 2014, some 9,600 NATO soldiers remain in Afghanista­n, about 2,500 of them members of the American contingent. Canada's combat mission in the wartorn country included the deaths of 159 soldiers, the largest military toll since the Korean War. More than 40,000 served in the war that began in 2001.

A residual U.S. military presence will remain to protect its embassy, although the final configurat­ion of forces will not be decided until an assessment of security risks at the end of the drawdown.

Tony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, told General Jens Stoltenber­g, the NATO secretary general, they would “leave together.”

Blinken, speaking in Brussels, said: “We in NATO will leave Afghanista­n together. Together we went into Afghanista­n, now it is time to bring our forces home.”

A U.S. official said: “We're committing today to going to zero.”

Britain's former defence minister, Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the defence select committee, said the U.S. decision risked “losing the peace” and allowing extremism to “regroup.” It was “concerning” and “not the right move.”

But he said British forces had “no choice” but to leave due to the U.S.'s “significan­t force protection capabiliti­es from which we benefited.”

Germany, which has 1,000 troops in Afghanista­n, has always said that it would no longer be able to maintain a presence there if the U.S. left.

Civilian deaths in Afghanista­n jumped 29 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the United Nations said in a report. As many as 573 Afghan civilians were killed, the report added. The Afghan government Wednesday tried to put a brave face on the withdrawal of foreign forces, saying its troops were well able to stand by themselves.

 ?? — WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP FILES ?? U.S. marines board a transport aircraft headed to Kandahar. U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanista­n by Sept. 11, after two decades of conflict.
— WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP FILES U.S. marines board a transport aircraft headed to Kandahar. U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanista­n by Sept. 11, after two decades of conflict.

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