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News ID: 89251
Publish Date : 17 April 2021 - 20:48

Pentagon Does Not Rule Out Deploying More Equipment to Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The U.S. Defense Department does not rule out the possibility of deploying more capabilities to Afghanistan ‘for the U.S. drawdown’, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday.
"It is not out of the realm of the possible that for a short period of time there will have to be some additional enabling capabilities added to Afghanistan to, again, help affect a safe, orderly, and deliberately planned drawdown of everybody by the president’s deadline in early September,” Kirby said in a press briefing.
Kirby said preliminary drawdown plans are currently being revised, which include the pullout of some U.S. contractors from Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, U.S. president Joe Biden announced the decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan starting May 1 and ending before September 11, the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, after which the administration of George W. Bush launched an operation in the country against the al-Qaeda terrorist group.
On Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance would start the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan on May 1 and wrap it up within several months. However, many are still skeptical about the withdrawal.
The United States, along with its NATO allies, invaded Afghanistan in October 2001. The invasion, which has led to the longest war in U.S. history, removed the Taliban from power. But the Taliban swiftly launched a bloody insurgency that the U.S.-led coalition has failed to quell.
Two decades of war has killed more than 2,200 U.S. troops, wounded 20,000, and cost as much as $1 trillion while thousands of Afghan civilians have lost their lives.
Some 10,000 troops from NATO and partner countries are currently deployed in Afghanistan, including 2,500 U.S. troops.
In February 2020 the Taliban struck a deal with the administration of Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump that would have seen U.S. troops withdraw by May 2021 in exchange for security guarantees.
With the fighting continuing, Biden has pushed that deadline back, but removed the conditions.
The Taliban representatives have repeatedly stated the need for the United States to comply with the previously agreed deadlines for the withdrawal of troops, stipulated in the agreement signed in Doha.
In an interview with Press TV, the Taliban said the United States has breached its agreement with the group for the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.
Mohammed Naeem Wardak, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Doha, told the Iranian news network on Thursday that Washington has failed to abide by its commitments and respect pledges under the 2020 deal with the group.
"The U.S. shamefully breached‎ the agreement on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Americans have failed to adhere to their commitments,” he said.
Wardak said the group’s priority is now to forcibly expel the U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Afghans have been engaged in a war against the occupiers and defending themselves against foreign forces for 20 years, the spokesman said.