US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he wants all US troops who are serving in war-torn Afghanistan, to be back home by Christmas.

“We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Last month, the US announced troops reduction from both Iraq and Afghanistan.

President’s Wednesday’s announcement comes less than a month to the US presidential election in which he is seeking re-election. 

The US first got involved in Afghanistan in October 2001, when it invaded the Asian nation to topple the Taliban regime that had harboured Al-Qaeda, the group behind the 9/11 terror attack.

In the agreement reached in February this year, with the Taliban, the United States promised to pull out all its troops by mid-2021 in return for insurgents’ promises not to allow Afghanistan to be used by extremists.

The Taliban have since opened talks in Doha with the Afghan government, but the meetings have immediately stalled as the hardline Sunni rebels insist on their form of Islamic jurisprudence.

Also read: Afghanistan talks: Bitter foes with incompatible goals

After 19 years of US military operations Trump’s stance on troops withdrawal enjoys wide support, with Democratic rival Joe Biden — a critic during his time as vice president of further US involvement in Afghanistan — also backing a withdrawal.

Also read: Two decades since US invasion, Afghans fear resurgent Taliban

Although the US toppled the Taliban regime in 2001, in the years since the resurgent militants have launched a fresh battle to topple the US-backed government in Kabul, with civilians bearing the brunt of spiraling violence since NATO combat troops withdrew in 2014.

Trump has already reduced US forces in Afghanistan to around 8,600 and the Taliban has stood by promises not to attack Western troops — even as the militants continue their bloody campaign against government forces.