Kabul: Even as the Taliban has been expanding its foothold across Afghanistan the US military could complete its withdrawal from the country within days, reports said on Wednesday.
However, US officials told the BBC that around 650 US troops were expected to stay back to protect the US embassy and several hundreds more to secure Kabul airport, even as as a top US commander warned the Afghanistan risked sliding into civil war as the last of the US troops leave the country.
Fighting in Afghanistan has seen a surge ever since the US began withdrawing last month, with the Taliban seizing more than 50 of 370 districts since May, encircling many cities and closing in on the capital Kabul.
President Biden has set a deadline of September 11 for US troops to fully withdraw from Afghanistan. But recent reports suggested that most of the more than 4,000 troops deployed in recent months could be out by mid-July, well ahead of time, as the pull-out now appears even faster.
