The US has promised to withdraw half of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of April, a Taliban official said Wednesday, but the US military said it has received no orders to begin packing up. Taliban official Abdul Salam Hanafi, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Moscow between the Taliban and other prominent Afghan figures, said that US officials promised the pullout will begin this month.
"The Americans told us that from the beginning of February to the end of April, half of the troops from Afghanistan will be withdrawn," he said. Spokeswoman Sgt. 1st Class Debra Richardson said in a telephone interview from the Afghan capital Kabul that the US military in Afghanistan had received no such orders.
"Our mission hasn't changed," she said. Hanafi said the US and the Taliban will each create a technical committee that "will work on a timetable for the withdrawal of remaining troops."
The Pentagon has reportedly prepared plans to withdraw half its 14,000 troops by the summer.
Efforts to find a negotiated end to Afghanistan's longest war have accelerated in recent months since the appointment last September of Zalmay Khalilzad as Washington's peace envoy.
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