'Now It's Time to Bring Our Forces Home' From Afghanistan, Blinken Says

Earlier this week, several US media reported, citing administration sources, that President Biden plans to publicly set the deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan for 11 September.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that it's time to bring American forces home from Afghanistan.

He also said that the US will cooperate with its NATO partners to safely withdraw its troops from the country. 

"Now it is time to bring our forces home. President [Joe] Biden will speak to this in a few hours in the United States and I am here to work closely with our allies with the [NATO] Secretary-General [Jens Stoltenberg] on the principle that we have established from the start. In together, adapt together, and out together. We will work very closely together in the weeks and months ahead on a safe, deliberate and coordinated withdrawal of our forces from Afghanistan," Blinken said during a briefing in Brussels.

NATO'S foreign and defence ministers are scheduled to discuss their plans via video link on 14 April.

This June 10, 2017 photo released by the U.S. Marine Corps shows an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter provides security from above while CH-47 Chinooks drop off supplies to U.S. Soldiers with Task Force Iron at Bost Airfield, Afghanistan. Sixteen years into its longest war, the United States is sending another 4,000 troops to Afghanistan in an attempt to turn around a conflict characterized by some of the worst violence since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

© AP Photo / Sgt. Justin Updegraff

On Tuesday, the US presidential administration announced that the United States would complete its troop withdrawal by 11 September, which will mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, after which the administration of ex-US leader George Bush started its operation against the al-Qaeda* terrorist organization. Its founder Osama Bin Laden was killed in a US SEAL team raid in Pakistan in May 2011. However, US and NATO forces have remained in Afghanistan since then in order to assist the Kabul government in its fight against the Taliban insurgency.

*al-Qaeda is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries.