The United States will keep 8,600 troops in Afghanistan after signing the deal with the Taliban to end an 18-year conflict, President Donald Trump said on Thursday.
"We will reduce the number of our troops to 8,600, and we will see after that. We will always be there," Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
There are currently between 13 thousand and 14 thousand US troops in Afghanistan after reaching a peak of 98 thousand in 2011.
Trump said that if the United States came under a new attack planned in Afghanistan, Washington would return "more strongly" than ever before.
Trump has vowed to turn the page on the war, which has been going on since 2001.
The president stressed that the withdrawal would not be complete while maintaining a force capable of providing "high-level intelligence."
"There should be maintained."
