Afghan assembly backs US troops pact, Karzai sets terms An Afghan grand assembly Sunday endorsed a crucial security agreement allowing some US troops to stay on after 2014, although President Hamid Karzai set conditions for signing the deal. The "loya jirga" gathering of about 2,500 chieftains, tribal elders and politicians overwhelming backed the pact setting the terms for any US military presence beyond 2014, and urged Karzai to sign it by the end of this year. Images of the loya jirga.