Afghanistan hits roadblock in path to peace

An end to the war within Afghanistan seems as far away as ever despite the United States and Taliban signing a peace deal last month. The Afghan government on Saturday postponed the release of 1,500 Taliban prisoners, a precondition for getting intra-Afghan negotiations started. Political turmoil at the highest levels of the Afghan government and the threat of the new coronavirus have cast even more doubt on the tenuous peace process.

Are U.S. troops still coming home? The United States said it will remove its forces from Afghanistan regardless of how talks go between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The U.S. military has already begun the first phase of the withdrawal, which will take its force in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 by fall.

Dig deeper: Read more about how Afghanistan is coping with the COVID-19 epidemic during wartime.