US pegs Afghanistan troop exit to 9/11

US President Joe Biden will withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Sept 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States that were coordinated from that country, several officials said. But critics warn that peace is anything but assured after two decades of fighting.

As officials disclosed Biden's pullout plans, the US intelligence community renewed deep concerns on Tuesday about the outlook for the government in Kabul.

"The Afghan government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support," said the US assessment, which was sent to Congress.

"Kabul continues to face setbacks on the battlefield, and the Taliban is confident it can achieve military victory."

Biden was scheduled to announce at the White House later on Wednesday local time the troop withdrawal plan tied to Sept 11, senior US officials said. He would then visit Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place of many US service members who lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sept 11 is a highly symbolic date, coming 20 years to the day of al-Qaida's attacks on the US, which prompted then-president George W. Bush to launch the war in the mountainous, landlocked country. The conflict has cost the lives of 2,400 US service members and consumed an estimated $2 trillion.

A study by Brown University estimated that 43,000 civilians have been killed in the ongoing war.

The incumbent Democratic president had faced a May 1 withdrawal deadline, set by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, who tried but failed to pull the troops out before he left office.

Biden's decision will keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan past that May 1 deadline, but officials suggested troops could fully depart before Sept 11. US troop numbers in Afghanistan peaked at more than 100,000 in 2011.

It remains unclear how Biden's move would affect a planned international meeting about Afghanistan starting on April 24 in Istanbul.

The Taliban, which was ousted from power in 2001 by US-led forces, said it would not take part in any summits that would make decisions about Afghanistan until all foreign forces had left the country.

Critics said the departure plan appeared to surrender Afghanistan to an uncertain fate, something that experts say was perhaps inevitable.

"There is no good way that the US can withdraw from Afghanistan. It cannot claim victory, and it cannot wait indefinitely for some cosmetic form of peace," said Anthony Cordesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

De facto 'failure'

By withdrawing without a clear victory, the US opens itself to criticism that a withdrawal is a de facto admission of failure.

The war began as a search for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the terror group's Sept 11 attacks, when hijackers slammed airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, killing 3,000 people. Bin Laden was killed by a US team of commandos in 2011.

Successive US presidents sought to extricate themselves from Afghanistan, but those hopes were confounded by concerns about Afghan security forces and the resiliency of a Taliban insurgency.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell accused Biden of planning to "turn tail and abandon the fight in Afghanistan".

Agencies, Heng Weili and Ai Heping in New York contributed to this story.