An Explosion Erupts in Kabul during the final preparations for an agreement between the US and the Taliban:
Agencies - The Taliban militant group that has been in conflict with the government in Afghanistan and Washington, has reached a final stage of a peace deal with the explosion in the Afghan capital. At least 16 civilians have been killed in this explosion in a residential area of Kabul. Another 171 people were injured in the blast, police sources said.
At the time of the bombing on Monday, US special envoy Jalmy Khalilzad was in Kabul to discuss the proposed deal.
He had come to Afghanistan for an agreement on the withdrawal of US troops here last time the Taliban fighters and the United States are about to reach a peace agreement.
According to Home Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, a tractor full of explosives was detonated on the wall at the command of an international association called Green Village, an organization with foreigners and residential buildings.
Rahimi confirmed that 16 civilians were killed in the explosion, and at least 499 others were injured. This is the third major attack by a Taliban fighter in a few days. Dozens of security forces and civilians were killed and wounded in fierce attacks in two major cities in northern Afghanistan over the weekend.
The al-Qaeda rebel group attacked Afghanistan on September 11, 2001, after the twin tower attack in New York City. At that time more than one hundred and thirty thousand US-led NATO troops had entered Afghanistan.
In December 2014, most of the NATO troops returned to their homeland from Afghanistan, declaring the end of the Afghan war. Since then, about 14,000 US troops have been confirmed by the Pentagon, the US Defense Ministry.
Meanwhile, discussions have begun to cut the number of US troops in Afghanistan. Last week, US President Donald Trump told the US that only 8,600 troops would be in Afghanistan.
Washington announced Thursday that the number of US troops in Afghanistan will drop to 8,600. The announcement was made when US peace talks with the Taliban fighters were about to end.
A month after September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, killing nearly 3,000, the then-President George W. Bush administration decided to send US troops to Afghanistan on October 7, 2001.
At that time, radical Taliban rulers in Afghanistan were sheltering Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda-led terrorist organization. The twin towers were attacked by the same group. Because of this, the US-led action against the organization had begun. After the US military-led coalition with some NATO military action against the Taliban in Afghanistan, it was called the war on terrorism.
In December of 2014, most of the US-led troops returned to Afghanistan. According to the agreement between the US and Afghanistan, 12 thousand 500 foreign troops were in Afghanistan. Currently, the US has proposed to reduce that number to 8,600 US troops in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the US has said it will continue the peace talks with the Afghan Taliban. While the peace talks were underway, the United States had offered to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. The Taliban fighters did not end the strike.
