“This makes good sense”.
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“We are not reentering the day-to-day combat operations that are now being conducted by Afghan security forces”, he said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the decision would also allow greater use of American air power.
The Afghan government welcomed the promises to deploy USA troops alongside conventional Afghan forces, saying help is needed in rooting out Taliban insurgents.
The move seems to signal that the end of the Afghanistan war could be further than most hoped.
The U.S. military will once again carry out airstrikes against Taliban militants in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported Thursday night, a decision that comes amid rising violence in the war-torn nation.
Congress had appropriated almost $113 billion for reconstruction since 2001, when US-led forces invaded the country and toppled the Taliban regime.
There are still 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a peak of around 100,000 in March 2011. That number is set to drop to just 5,500 by the year’s end.
Now U.S. forces are mainly confined to ministries or bases.
“There’s been a willingness on the part of the Afghan forces to reorganise and take the fight back to their adversaries”. With the Afghan military’s losses mounting, the new U.S. commander, Lt. Gen. John Nicholson was keen to ramp operations back up. But strikes against the Taliban were largely halted at the end of 2014, when the US -led coalition’s combat role ended.
“Our mission is the same”, Carter said.
Still, experts warn that it’s hard to predict when Afghanistan will be able to face the Taliban on its own, not to mention the country’s enormous economic difficulties and fractious political system.
The campaign to neutralize the Taliban has suffered multiple setbacks as Obama enters the twilight of his presidency.
The president’s move also allows American ground forces to accompany Afghan government fighters into combat – something they haven’t formally been allowed to do for nearly two years. Afghan officials welcomed the change. Gunmen kidnapped 40 others. “We welcome this decision from America and it will boost the morale of the Afghan army”. As a result, those soldiers who form the backbone of the Afghan military have been timid and disorganized, a state US officials blamed for such embarrassing lapses as the fall of Kunduz previous year.
“The Taliban has shifted their main effort down to Helmand”, Cleveland said, noting, however, that the US hasn’t seen the full Taliban offensive it expected. “Even after the United States conducted a strike that officials believe killed former Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in Pakistan, officials expect a punishing fighting season this summer”.
Obama is expected to complete an Afghanistan plan to be handed over to his successor by July 8, when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit starts in Warsaw.
Defence Secretary Ash Carter said the order was issued to General Sean MacFarland, US commander in Afghanistan. But it could also significantly boost Afghan forces, who now have limited close air-support capacities. That could help bridge the gap before the delivery of dozens of A-29 Super Tucano aircraft over the next 18 months.
The expanded powers are only meant to be employed “in those select instances in which their engagement can enable strategic effects on the battlefield”, the official said. “What we are doing now is taking a look at the battle space and making sure we provide the things we can”, he added.
The US has to decide whether it wants to win or lose.
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The stepped-up US role doesn’t change the underlying weakness of Afghan forces that aren’t capable of fighting insurgents and are mostly reassigned police officers, said Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
