Biden to announce withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11

President Biden is set to announce that all American troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks this year, The Washington Post reports.

Biden will reportedly reveal the new deadline this week, which will come after he said last month that it would be "hard to meet" the May 1 withdrawal deadline set under former President Donald Trump and negotiated with the Taliban.

"It is not my intention to stay there for a long time," Biden said in March. "...We will leave. The question is when we leave."

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Biden also said at the time he "can't picture" U.S. troops still being in Afghanistan in 2022.

The president is planning for a "phased withdrawal" from Afghanistan between now and September, the Post writes. CNN confirmed the news that the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be withdrawn but noted it wasn't "immediately clear what will happen to several hundred U.S. special operations forces there."

But the Post quoted a source familiar with the deliberations as saying, "If we break the May 1st deadline negotiated by the previous administration with no clear plan to exit, we will be back at war with the Taliban, and that was not something President Biden believed was in the national interest."