WASHINGTON \u2014 Intelligence that Afghan militants might have accepted Russian bounties for killing American troops did not scuttle the U.S.-Taliban agreement or President Donald Trump\u2019s plan to withdraw thousands more troops from the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It did give critics of the deal another reason to say the Taliban shouldn\u2019t be trusted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bounty information was included in Trump\u2019s president\u2019s daily intelligence brief<\/a> on Feb. 27, according to intelligence officials, and two days later, the U.S. and Taliban signed an agreement in Qatar<\/a>. The agreement clears the way for America to end 19 years in Afghanistan and gives Trump a way to make good on his promise to end U.S. involvement in what he calls \u201cendless wars.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 3, three days after the agreement was signed, the president had a 35-minute phone call with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and head of their political office in Qatar. After reports of the bounties broke in late June, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a video conference with Baradar <\/a>to make it clear that the U.S. expects the Taliban to live up to their commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the agreement, the U.S. will pull all its troops out of Afghanistan by May 2021. So far the U.S. has reduced U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan from 12,000 to 8,600 \u2014 a target reached ahead of schedule. Now, Trump is considering when and how quickly to further shrink the U.S. military footprint. <\/p>\n\n\n\t