Trump to take US troops out of Afghanistan ‘by Christmas’

US President Donald Trump said he wanted US troops to return from Afghanistan by Christmas, bringing forward a withdrawal date agreed to with the Taliban in February.

Washington committed to taking all US forces out of the country by next May in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees.

In July, the US reduced its military presence to about 8,600 troops, with plans to bring it down to about 5,000 by next month.

On Thursday, Mr Trump tweeted that “the small remaining number of our brave men and women serving in Afghanistan” should be withdrawn in time for the festive period.

Mr Trump, who faces Democratic rival Joe Biden in the presidential election on November 3, previously called for an end to US involvement in “endless wars”.

Last month, Mr Biden said he was in favour of Mr Trump’s plan to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan “as long as he has a plan to figure out how he’s going to deal with ISIS”.

The Taliban are in talks with negotiators backed by the Afghan government but have not yet been able to resolve disagreements over issues such as whether to use the deal between the insurgents and the US as a basis for peace negotiations.

On Wednesday, US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said he was cautiously optimistic about the talks.

“The overwhelming majority of Afghans would like to see an end to the conflict,” he said.

“I believe that the Taliban are quite serious about the negotiations.

“Many thought that they wouldn’t sit across the table from the Afghan government – that all they wanted was an agreement for the withdrawal of US forces.”