US closes five bases in Afghanistan as part of Taliban peace deal

ISLAMABAD: The United States has shut five bases in Afghanistan in compliance with Washington’s peace agreement with the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, said on Tuesday.
The closed US bases are in Helmand, Uruzgan, Paktika and Laghman provinces.
"We have reached Day 135, a key milestone in implementation of the US-Taliban agreement.The US has worked hard to carry out the 1st phase of its commitments under the agreement, including to reduce forces & depart five bases. NATO troops have come down in proportional numbers (sic)," Khalilzad posted on Twitter. "As we look to the next phase of implementation under the agreement, our approach will remain conditions-based. We will press for completion of prisoner releases, reduction of violence, complete delivery on CT (counter-terrorism) commitments and start of and progress in intra-Afghan negotiations (sic)," he said.
According to media reports, US troops in Afghanistan have been reduced to 8,600, while Nato has currently around 12,000 troops under the Resolute Support (RS) mission.
A spokesperson for American troops in Afghanistan said the US continues its counter-terror fight against groups like "ISIS (Daesh)" and Al-Qaeda while also providing training, funding and supplies to Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) through the NATO RS mission.
Some important parts of the US-Taliban deal, such as reduction in violence and intra-Afghan negotiations, have not been implemented since the signing of the Doha accord.
The Afghan government has blamed the Taliban for not implementing their commitments, saying that movement by the group should be scrutinised after the peace deal.
The prisoner exchange between the Afghan government and the Taliban is another complicated process that has delayed intra-Afghan negotiations. According to the agreement, the prisoner-swap process should have happened within 10 days of the peace deal.
"Their (Taliban’s) key responsibility was a significant reduction in violence and an ‘unofficial’ ceasefire. Another responsibility of theirs was to cut their ties with all terrorist groups, but you saw in recent reports by the UN and US that this has not happened so far," presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said. "A big role in the peace process is on the Taliban’s shoulders," he added.