7th November, 2017
“About half the additional troops will come from the United States and the other half from non-U.S. NATO allies and partner countries.
“We have decided to increase the number of troops to help the Afghans break the stalemate,” Stoltenberg told a news conference before a meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers on Thursday.
Stoltenberg stressed the soldiers would not have combat roles but would be part of NATO’s train, advice and assist mission called Resolute Support.
Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of the Resolute Support mission and of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, called for more troops in February.
Nicholson said that a few thousand more troops would make a difference in weakening the Taliban and other Islamist militants.
“The NATO contribution would take Resolute Support, which is building up Afghanistan’s army and air force, to around 16,000 troops, up from around 13,000 today,’’ Stoltenberg said.
Under a new strategy announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said in September that over 3,000 additional U.S. troops would be deployed to Afghanistan.
NATO officials declined to discuss troop numbers in detail, the expected announcement on Thursday by NATO defence ministers is likely to mean the U.S. troops will be split between the training missions.
They said that the troops would also be added to the U.S.-led counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan.