Under draft peace accord, U.S. would withdraw 5,400 troops from Afghanistan

Zalmay Khalilzad.
(Image credit: Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images)

As the special U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan appeared on television Monday to share details on the U.S.-Taliban draft peace accord, a car bomb went off in Kabul, killing at least five civilians and wounding 50. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, and said it targeted foreign forces.

The U.S. diplomat, Zalmay Khalilzad, was in Kabul to go over the deal with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. There are now 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and under the accord, nearly 5,400 would leave the country within the next five months. In exchange, the Taliban would make sure that militant groups do not use Afghanistan as a base for attacks against the United States and its allies.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.