Trump: US will limit troops in Afghanistan to 8,600

WASHINGTON

The U.S. will drawdown its force level in Afghanistan to 8,600 troops, President Donald Trump said Thursday.

Trump vowed the Washington will "always" maintain a presence in the war-torn country, which he continued to maintain is the "Harvard University for terror."

There are currently 14,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, but Trump has repeatedly pledged to extricate the America from the conflict there and has reiterated those vows ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential elections.

"We're reducing that presence very substantially. And we're going to always have a presence. We're going to have high intelligence," Trump said during an interview with Fox News Radio. "And I will put this word out, and I've already said it, but if they ever did anything from Afghanistan we will come back with a force like they've never seen before."

Trump doubled down on his earlier comments saying he could end the 18-year war quickly through mass killings, but said he does not want to pursue that option.

"We're not fighting a war over there. We're just policemen over there. We could win that war in so fast if I wanted to kill 10 million people," Trump said before adding, "I'm not looking to kill a big portion of that country."

Peace talks are ongoing between the U.S. and the Taliban, and the Afghan government has said it will enter those discussions soon.

Escalating violence has continued to mar Afghanistan amid the ongoing ninth marathon round of peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar.

Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s Qatar office spokesman, said in a tweet Wednesday that efforts will be made to resolve final points of a peace accord with the U.S. “soon.”

The Taliban have been holding peace talks with the U.S. for nearly a year but refuse to recognize or negotiate with the Afghan government.

Last Friday, rumors of the establishment of an interim government in Kabul overshadowed the first two days of talks in Doha. The U.S. and Taliban denied discussing an interim government weeks ahead of the key presidential elections slated for Sept. 28.

The Afghan Interior Ministry announced Wednesday the deployment of nearly 100,000 armed forces for the security of the presidential polls.

The Taliban have warned people against taking part in the polls.