Trump to withdraw 'significant' troops from Afghanistan

Kabul: US President Donald Trump has decided to pull a significant number of troops from Afghanistan, a US official said on Thursday, with the Afghan presidency brushing off concerns the drawdown would affect security.

Reports suggested as many as half of the 14,000 troops in the war-torn country could be leaving.

The surprise move stunned and dismayed foreign diplomats and officials in Kabul who are involved in an intensifying push to end the 17-year conflict with the Taliban, which already controls vast amounts of territory and is causing "unsustainable" Afghan troop casualties.

"If you're the Taliban, Christmas has come early," a senior foreign official in the Afghan capital said on the condition of anonymity.

"Would you be thinking of a ceasefire if your main opponent has just withdrawn half their troops?" Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid would not comment about the troop withdrawal when contacted by AFP. But a senior Taliban commander welcomed the decision.

"Frankly speaking we weren't expecting that immediate US response," the official said from an unknown location in northwest Pakistan.

"We are more than happy, they realised the truth. We are expecting more good news."

It is not clear if US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad or the Afghan government had been warned of Trump's plans in advance. But a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani downplayed the effect of any pullout.

"If they withdraw from Afghanistan it will not have a security impact because in the last four and half years the Afghans have been in full control," presidential spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri said via social media. US-led NATO combat troops withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, handing responsibility for securing the country to local forces. Trump's decision apparently came Tuesday as Khalilzad met with the Taliban in Abu Dhabi, part of efforts to bring the militants to the negotiating table with the Afghan government. They discussed issues ranging from the group's longstanding demand for a pullout of foreign troops, the release of prisoners including Anas Haqqani, son of the Haqqani network's founder, and a ceasefire, Khalilzad told Afghan media in Kabul on Thursday.