US to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan

The Pentagon will withdraw 7,000 of about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. defence official. The decision emerged a day after Trump said he would pull U.S. forces from Syria, a move most of his national security team had opposed for months.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump's defence secretary, Jim Mattis, announced his resignation from his post. In his letter of departure, Gen Mattis strongly hinted at policy differences with the president but did not cite troop withdrawals directly.

Before his election, Trump repeatedly publicly advocated leaving Afghanistan, but last year he indicated he would keep boots on the ground indefinitely to prevent the country's collapse amid a Taliban resurgence.

Since American troops first arrived in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the U.S. has appropriated about $126 billion for relief and reconstruction, including $78 billion for security, according to a July report from a Pentagon watchdog. Yet the U.S. presence and funding couldn’t prevent conditions on the ground from deteriorating.

According to the Pentagon watchdog’s reports, the Kabul government’s grip on the country has been consistently shrinking, civilian deaths have been rising and the production of poppy used to make heroin was surging.

Trump’s decision came hours after the Pentagon published a new quarterly report on Afghanistan that described the military situation as of November 30 as being at “an impasse.” The arrival of additional U.S. advisers this year helped slow “the momentum of a Taliban march that had capitalized on U.S. draw-downs between 2011 and 2016,” it said.

Afghan forces “remain in control of most of Afghanistan’s population centres and all of the provincial capitals, while the Taliban control large portions of Afghanistan’s rural areas, and continue to attack poorly defended government checkpoints and rural district centres,” it said.

The decision to withdraw forces comes as the U.S. tries to broker talks aimed at bringing a more lasting peace to Afghanistan. American officials held talks with Taliban representatives in the United Arab Emirates this week, joined by officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the U.A.E.

One sticking point has been the Taliban’s refusal to talk directly with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government, saying doing so would be a “waste of time” because they see his government as illegitimate.