Pres. Joe Biden Admits Donald Trump's Deal With Taliban Resulted in a Year Without Combat Death in Afghanistan
U.S. President Joe Biden bows his head in a moment of silence as he speaks about the situation in Kabul, Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House on August 26, 2021 in Washington, DC. At least 12 American service members were killed on Thursday by suicide bomb attacks near the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Thursday said that U.S. troops in Afghanistan did not face attacks over the past year because of former President Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban.

In a press briefing at the White House, Joe Biden said there had been no American combat fatalities in Afghanistan since February 2020 until Thursday's attacks, CBS News reported.

Donald Trump earlier negotiated with the Taliban, in which he pledged the U.S. would withdraw all American forces in Afghanistan by May 1, 2021 if there were no attacks against U.S. troops.

"The reason why there were no attacks on Americans... was because of the commitment made by President Trump, 'I will be out by May 1. In the meantime, you agree not to attack any Americans.' That was the deal," Biden noted.

Donald Trump on Taliban Deal

Donald Trump has agreed to withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021 if the Taliban negotiated a peace agreement with the Afghan government and vowed to prevent terrorist groups like the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda from gaining a foothold.

In a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Trump boasted about his "relationship" with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, Huff Post reported. The former president said nobody could negotiate with the Taliban leader like him. He noted that he found Baradar to be reasonable.

"I spoke to him (Baradar) tough, but I had a very good relationship with him, very good," the former president said. Trump further noted that he would have kept control of the Bagram Air Base and destroyed every military equipment that the U.S. was leaving behind.

Earlier this year, Joe Biden has extended the original departure deadline agreed to under the Trump administration from May 1 to Sept. 11, 2021. But he then announced last month that the military mission in Afghanistan would end on August 31.

Biden said he had to follow through with the agreement or it would risk new conflicts with the Taliban, Axios reported. Biden has blamed the Trump administration for the chaos in Afghanistan, saying the former president emboldened the Taliban.

However, the president admitted that he would have tried to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan even if Trump did not negotiate with the Taliban group. Biden said he saw no way to complete a withdrawal without any conflict ensuing.

Biden noted that he had never been of the view of sacrificing American lives to try to establish a democratic government in Afghanistan, "a country that has never once in its entire history been a united country."

Donald Trump Claimed Taliban Leader Listened to Him

During Sean Hannity's Fox News show, Donald Trump said he warned the Taliban leader that his organization would be eviscerated by U.S. F-18 jets if they moved to retake Kabul in the past. The former president also claimed that the Taliban gained back its power because Joe Biden was too weak to punish them.

Trump noted that his administration had the Taliban totally under control. The former president said he warned the Taliban they would be wiped out by F-18 jets if they tried to take Kabul.

"Every time we saw movement, we hit them with an F-18, and the movement stopped," said Trump of keeping the Taliban out of Afghanistan.

On Thursday, at least 103 people, including 13 U.S. service personnel, were reportedly killed by ISIS terrorists in two attacks outside the Kabul airport. Calls for Joe Biden's resignation and impeachment have mounted after the incidents.

Joe Biden said the ones responsible for the attacks outside Kabul airport were the fighters from the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, known as ISIS Khorasan or ISIS-K.

The Pentagon said a suicide bomber detonated an explosion in a crowd waiting near the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Since Kabul fell to the Taliban, thousands of people have gathered daily at the airport's gates, desperate to board flights out of Afghanistan. The Pentagon noted that the second explosion struck the nearby Baron Hotel.

Joe Biden has vowed to locate the group responsible for the attacks. The president said the U.S. would not be intimidated by the attacks and would continue the process of withdrawing from the capital.

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: 'We Will Hunt You Down and Make you Pay' - Joe Biden's Warning to Kabul Attackers - From Sky News