{"id":29713,"date":"2020-07-15T08:20:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T02:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=29713"},"modified":"2020-07-15T08:20:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T02:50:04","slug":"us-closes-5-military-bases-in-afghanistan-as-part-of-taliban-peace-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=29713","title":{"rendered":"US closes 5 military bases in Afghanistan as part of Taliban peace deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. closed five military bases in Afghanistan as part of an agreement signed with the Taliban more than four months ago, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The deal promised to withdraw all U.S. forces from the bases in the first 135 days, a milestone met on Tuesday, President Trump\u2019s special representative to the talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The U.S. has worked hard to carry out the 1st phase of its commitments under the Agreement, including to reduce forces &amp; depart five bases. NATO troops have come down in proportional numbers,&#8221; Khalilzad said on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We have reached Day 135, a key milestone in implementation of the U.S.-Taliban Agreement. The U.S. has worked hard to carry out the 1st phase of its commitments under the Agreement, including to reduce forces &amp; depart five bases. NATO troops have come down in proportional numbers<\/p>&mdash; US4AfghanPeace (@US4AfghanPeace) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/US4AfghanPeace\/status\/1282833439939592194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 14, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Afghan media outlet Tolo reported the five U.S. bases that closed are located in Helmand, Uruzgan, Paktika and Laghman provinces, in southern and eastern Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The larger U.S. bases in Bagram, located outside Kabul, and Kandahar Air Field in southern Afghanistan remain open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a57-foxnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org\/i\/s\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/640\/320\/Base-in-Logar-province-Afghanistan-Reuters.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1\" alt=\"U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army (ANA) Base in Logar province, Afghanistan August 7, 2018. REUTERS\/Omar Sobhani\"\/><figcaption><em>U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army (ANA) Base in Logar province, Afghanistan August 7, 2018. REUTERS\/Omar Sobhani<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another major stipulation of the proposed peace deal brokered in Doha in February between the Taliban and the U.S. is the large-scale withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. slashed the number of troops in the region to 8,600,\u00a0down from a high of over 100,000 in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the reduction in U.S. troops as part of the agreement, violence between the Taliban and Afghan forces has spiked in recent months, according to the Afghan government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just a day before the base closures, the Taliban detonated a car bomb at a government facility in&nbsp;Samangan province&#8217;s capital Aybak, near the office of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), a key intelligence agency, killing 11 security personnel and wounding at least 63 civilians, including children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a57-foxnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org\/i\/s\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/640\/320\/AP20195673569212.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1\" alt=\"Afghan security personnel inspect the site of a car bomb blast on an intelligence compound in Aybak, the capital of the Samangan province in northern Afghanistan, Monday, July 13, 2020. Taliban insurgents launched a complex attack on the compound that began with a suicide bombing, officials said. (AP Photo)\"\/><figcaption><em>Afghan security personnel inspect the site of a car bomb blast on an intelligence compound in Aybak, the capital of the Samangan province in northern Afghanistan, Monday, July 13, 2020. Taliban insurgents launched a complex attack on the compound that began with a suicide bombing, officials said. (AP Photo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>ARMY&#8217;S &#8216;CAPTAIN AMERICA&#8217; DIES BY SUICIDE AFTER NEARLY A DOZEN COMBAT TOURS<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The surge in violence across the nation targeting Afghan forces is likely a tactic to strongarm the government into releasing nearly 600 additional Taliban prisoners before the group considers measures to end the nearly two-decades-old war in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We condemn today&#8217;s attack. The use of major explosives to detonate a vehicle in a provincial capital is unacceptable and will strengthen those who oppose peace and plays into the hands of spoilers. All sides must reduce violence&#8221; Khalilzad tweeted on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Violence has been high, especially in recent days &amp; weeks. Afghans continue to die in large numbers for no reason. The Taliban&#8217;s attack today in a provincial capital contradicts their commitment to reduce violence until a permanent ceasefire is reached in intra-Afghan talks,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government has released 4,199 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban 779 members of pro-government forces, according to figures provided by both sides, Al Jazeera reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the prisoner exchanges on both sides as called for in the U.S.-Taliban deal, talks for a mutual peace agreement have been at a standstill, delaying its kickoff that was supposed to begin in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>With inputs from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/world\/us-military-closes-5-bases-afghanistan-taliban-deal-special-rep\">Fox News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. closed five military bases in Afghanistan as part of an agreement signed with the Taliban more than four months ago, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News. The deal promised to withdraw all U.S. forces from the bases in the first 135 days, a milestone met on Tuesday, President Trump\u2019s special representative to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}