Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford has said that Washington does not want Afghanistan to become a sanctuary from which the US and its allies are threatened and that the country needs a negotiated peaceful settlement.

Mr. Dunford’s remarks come hours after US President Donald Trump said he will reduce the number of US troops from 14,000 to 8,600 and “then we’ll make a determination from there as to what happens”.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Friday started the transfer of election materials to all provinces which was delayed for two days due to issues around malfunction in biometric devices.

Head of the IEC secretariat, Habib-Ur-Rahman Nang, told reporters at the commission on Friday that the process will end on September 11.