Mattis signed orders to send additional troops to Afghanistan

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on August 31, he had signed orders to send additional troops to Afghanistan. Mattis has also announced that American troops in Afghanistan will not only train Afghan national security forces but have also been authorised to engage the enemy.

Mattis said he would not comment on how many additional troops were included in the orders until he briefs Congress next week. He also said that the makeup of those U.S. forces in Afghanistan would also start changing in line with Trump’s guidance.

Thursday’s briefing, however, focused mostly on Afghanistan as Secretary Mattis used it to announce that he has signed deployment orders to send additional troops to Afghanistan. He said he would outline the rationale for sending additional forces in more detail when he testifies to Congress on Wednesday.

Pentagon officials told reporters on August 30, that the military was also reorganising some of the forces already in Afghanistan to carry out the new mission, which involves engaging the enemy. But Mattis said that most of the fight was still done by the Afghan security forces and the 38 other allies deployed in Afghanistan.

The new forces are expected to include elements of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and 25th Infantry Division, reported Wednesday by the Washington Post, citing unnamed U.S. officials. Mattis is also expected to deploy Marine artillery detachments and approve an increase in combat air support to include F-16 fighter jets, A-10 ground attack planes and B-52 bombers, according to the Post.

A Pentagon official said the United States currently had about 11,000 troops in Afghanistan to advise Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism missions. Some media outlets reported that the Pentagon would send nearly 4,000 additional troops, some of whom might come from the 82nd Airborne Division.

To date, more than 2,300 Americans have been killed and over 17,000 wounded in Afghanistan. The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated for the US and Afghan government over the past few years.

Pakistan’s stance

“We intend to work with Pakistan in order to take the terrorists down. I think that’s what a responsible nation does,” said Secretary Mattis when asked at a Pentagon news briefing on Thursday “what kind of relationship the US wanted to keep with Pakistan”.

Earlier on August 31, the US State Department too expressed a similar desire but also announced that it was placing $255 million of military assistance for Pakistan into an escrow account. Islamabad can only access this account if it successfully stops cross-border terrorist attacks into Afghanistan and helps the United States win the war.

Last week, Pakistan rescheduled cabinet, foreign affairs and security talks with the United States that aimed to explore how the two countries could rebuild their relations under the guidelines set by President Donald Trump in his Aug 21 speech.

On the ground

The Afghan government was assessed by the US military to control or influence almost 60 percent of Afghanistan’s 407 districts as of February 20, a nearly 11 percentage-point decrease from the same time in 2016, according to data released by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

Earlier this month, the Taliban told Trump in an open letter that the military situation in Afghanistan was “far worse than you realize”, and sending in more troops would be self-destructive.

The Taliban, seeking to restore strict Islamic law, has waged an insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government since losing power in a U.S.-led invasion after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Those attacks were planned by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from a base in Afghanistan.

In the nearly 16 years since the United States went to war in Afghanistan, the number of American troops initially grew in spurts, as U.S. leaders wavered about how much focus to put on the war. President Barack Obama came into office in 2009 saying he would give the war there the attention it required,

The U.S. had about 100,000 there at its peak under the Obama administration in 2010 to 2011, according to AP.

In 2017, 10 U.S. service members have been killed in action in Afghanistan, most of whom died in fights against Islamic State militants in the country’s east.

In addition to its mission to train and advise Afghan forces, the United States maintains a unilateral mission to attack ISIS and other terrorist groups in the country, including al-Qaida.

Defense officials have said the bulk of new deployments would focus on aiding the fight against the Taliban, but it would also include some smaller special operations teams to boost the fight against other terrorist groups.