AFGHANISTAN, 16 January 2021, (TON): President Donald Trump orders have been duly implemented and as now the US military personnel are less than 1,400 personnel.  It met its goal of reducing the number of soldiers deployed in Afghanistan to about 2,500.

President Donald Trump ordered the reduction in November 2020 and confirmed on Friday that troop levels in Afghanistan had reached to about 2,500.

As per the agreement between the US and Taliban Washington agreed to reduce US troops in phases and to go to zero by May 2021. US Acting US Defense Secretary confirmed the withdrawal in a statement on Friday, “This force reduction is an indication of the United States’ continued support towards the Afghan peace process and our adherence to commitments made in both the US-Taliban agreement and the US-Afghanistan Joint Declaration. Moving forward, while the Department continues with planning capable of further reducing U.S. troop levels to zero by May of 2021, any such future draw-downs remain conditions-based.”

President-elect Joe Biden, who has advocated keeping a small counterterrorism force in Afghanistan as a way to ensure that armed groups like al-Qaeda are unable to launch attacks on the United States, faces a number of questions on Afghanistan. Under the National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress two weeks ago, the Pentagon was explicitly forbidden to use money from this year’s or last year’s budget on reducing the number of soldiers below 4,000  or below the number that was in the country the day the bill was finalised, which was 1 January 2021. President Trump vetoed the measure, but the House and the Senate voted to override his veto.