US general wants thousands more troops to break Afghan stalemate
US commander in Afghanistan says he needs more troops to break stalemate in war with Taliban.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top US commander in Afghanistan said on Thursday he needs several thousand more international troops in order to break a stalemate in the long war with Taliban insurgents, signaling the matter may soon be put before President Donald Trump.
So far, Trump has offered little clarity about whether he might approve more forces for Afghanistan, where some 8,400 U.S. troops remain more than 15 years after the Islamist Taliban government was toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces.
A U.S. soldier was severely wounded in fighting in Afghanistan on Thursday, the military said.
Army General John Nicholson, who leads U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, acknowledged Taliban gains over the past year, when deployed U.S. forces were reduced even as security deteriorated.
Nicholson said he still had enough U.S. troops to carry out counterterrorism missions against al Qaeda and other militant targets, but not enough to properly advise Afghan forces on the ground.
"We have a shortfall of a few thousand," Nicholson told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He added that those forces could both be drawn from the United States and from allies. Still, any increase of several thousand troops would leave American forces in Afghanistan well below their 2011 peak of more than 100,000 troops.
Nicholson noted that Trump s defense secretary, Jim Mattis, would soon speak with allies and suggested Mattis might visit Afghanistan in the coming weeks.
That could help Mattis prepare his own recommendation to the Republican president, who has sharply criticized past U.S. administrations for their handling of conflicts in the Muslim world but has also pledged to eradicate militant Islamists around the globe.
Trump s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, was often criticized by Republicans in Congress for focusing too much on driving down U.S. troop numbers in an attempt to force Afghan soldiers to become more self-sufficient.
"For too long our strategy in Afghanistan has been: Don t lose," said Senator John McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee.
Asked at one point whether a Trump administration might be more open to deciding on things like U.S. troop numbers based on concrete objectives and conditions on the ground, Nicholson responded: "Yes, sir."
