Taliban threatens fresh attacks on US troops as Biden skips withdrawal deadline

The Taliban is warning that US troops in Afghanistan will be hit with new attacks — now that the May 1 withdrawal deadline promised last year by President Trump has passed.

Afghan security personnel gather at the site of bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan on Feb. 26, 2020.

The insurgent group’s fighters will “take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying forces,” a Taliban spokesman tweeted Saturday.

Chinook helicopters fly over the Paktia’s mountains province near Khost.

Security checkpoints were tightened in Kabul and other cities, and military patrols were stepped up on their streets, according to reports.

US soldiers, part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force patrol west of Kabul, Afghanistan.

The warning came on May 1, the date that Trump and Taliban leaders had agreed on as the end of the two-decade American military presence in the strife-torn nation.

Taliban forces suspended assaults on coalition forces after signing a peace agreement that specified the withdrawal date last February.

A NATO armored vehicle patrols inside a US military base in Kandahar on April 29, 2021.

But President Biden extended the deadline, pledging instead to pull US troops out by Sept. 11.

A vacated US military base at Kandahar International Airport on April 29, 2021.