US seems to want to top up troops in Afghanistan – Army news US troops in Afghanistan

Donald Trump opposed his election to send additional US troops abroad. Defense Minister Mattis is now expected to do the opposite.

Defense Minister Mattis US Army

US troops in Afghanistan

The US appears to be increasing the number of soldiers in Afghanistan – despite the fact that US President Donald Trump had spoken out against relocating additional troops abroad before his election.

According to US media, the Pentagon plans to request the deployment of 3,000 to 5,000 additional US and NATO soldiers. Already in February, NATO commander-in-chief in Afghanistan, US General John Nicholson, had demanded “a few thousand soldiers” more. ( US troops in Afghanistan )

US seems to want to top up troops in Afghanistan – Army news US troops in Afghanistan

The new plans seem to be related to Trump handing over the decision on future troop levels in Afghanistan to the Pentagon. Secretary of Defense James Mattis could now set the number of soldiers independently, said a government official in Washington. Such a power Trump had already given the Pentagon for the operations against the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.

Under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, troop numbers in Afghanistan, Iraq and even Syria had been determined in close coordination with the White House. The military leadership had complained about the resulting limited scope.

The number of US troops in Afghanistan is currently at 9800, and in 2017 it should be reduced to 8400 by Barack Obama. In addition, there are about 5000 soldiers from other NATO states.

Officially, the NATO states had ended their combat mission in the Hindu Kush at the end of 2014. Since then, the task of the remaining NATO troops has been limited to training, advising and supporting anti-terrorist operations. The security situation in Afghanistan is still extremely unstable. More than a third of the country is not controlled by the security forces of the government.

Mattis said at a congressional hearing that the government wants to develop a new strategy for Afghanistan by mid-July. Previously, Republican Senator John McCain had criticized that there was still no strategy to end the 15-year conflict.

At the hearing, Mattis had warned against an advance of the radical Islamic Taliban. At present foreign troops could not “win” the war against the Taliban. Insurgents had a “good year” in 2016, Mattis said. “And they’re trying to have a good year again this year,” added the Pentagon chief.

 War in Afghanistan is growing sharply

In the meantime, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has arrived in the Afghan capital Kabul. The city has recently experienced the bloodiest week since the civil war in the 1990s. Two major attacks and demonstrations to increase security in the country killed some 180 people and injured more than 600. Nationwide, the war is worsening with the radical Islamic Taliban.

Because of the growing violence since the beginning of 2016, more than 785,000 Afghans have become internally displaced persons. In addition, since last year, hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees have been forcibly returned from their neighboring country of Pakistan to their war-torn homeland. Only a few get help. An estimated 250,000 Afghans had also left the country for Europe in 2016 alone. Many European countries continue to send rejected asylum seekers back. Germany has suspended deportations following the bloody week in Kabul in early June.