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03/28/2024 04:34:20 pm

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U.S. Signs Deal To Keep 9,800 Troops In Afghanistan

U.S. Afghan troops

(Photo : Reuters/Jonathan Ernst) U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a surprise visit to American troops deployed in Afghanistan on May 25, 2014.

The newly inaugurated Afghan government will sign a long-delayed security deal on Tuesday to approve the retention of 9,800 American troops until after 2014, an aide to President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai told AFP.

Former President Hamid Karzai rejected the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) last year, incensing Western leaders and the United States.

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According to Daoud Sultanzoy, an aide to President Ahmadzai, a senior Afghan minister will sign the agreement a day after the new president's inauguration as part of a political pledge made during this year's election campaigns.

White House announced that James Cunningham, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, will sign the deal on behalf of President Barack Obama.

Karzai refused to sign the deal despite its popularity in Afghanistan and in spite of the support given by Loya Jirga, the traditional grand assembly composed of thousands of Afghan elders.

Karzai denounced the United States and its international allies for its alleged crimes against the Afghan civilian population. He reportedly criticized the airstrikes mounted against the Islamist Taliban group that left half of the Afghan population dead.

Civil war ensued following the removal of the Taliban group in 2001, USA Today reported.

Ahmadzai was inaugurated on Monday after Karzai stepped down in the country's first democratic elections.

Runner-up Abdullah Abdullah was named chief executive in a U.S.-brokered power-sharing government that had levelled off the civil war threatening to arise between north and south Afghanistan, according to Fox News.

Under the BSA, the U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be scaled back to 9,800 military personnel before 2015. Along with forces deployed by NATO allies, the foreign military presence in the country will be reduced to 12,500 soldiers by early 2015.

Deployment will be halved before 2015 ends and will be further reduced to standard embassy presence by 2016. By 2017, U.S. forces will be removed entirely.

The BSA will allow for residual foreign forces to train Afghan troops and conduct special missions targeting Taliban militants and affiliates, BBC reported.

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