The official said USA forces will also be able to provide close air support to Afghan ground forces and accompany and advise them on the ground. “This does not mean a blanket order to target the Taliban”. Afghan officials welcomed the change.
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Mr. Obama already made a decision this week on one aspect of the plan by lifting some restrictions on the engagement of US troops with Taliban fighters.
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.
President Barack Obama has granted US military commanders more freedom to strike Taliban targets in support of Afghan troops, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced Friday.
“This added flexibility is fully supported by the Afghan government and will help the Afghans at an important moment for the country”, said a senior administration official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss decisions that have not been made public.
Last week, more than a dozen retired U.S. generals and diplomats urged Obama to maintain the current level of troops in Afghanistan, warning that a reduction would undercut the morale of Afghan government forces and bolster the Taliban. “We anticipate the Taliban will continue an agenda of violence”, he said during a visit to Japan.
Against this backdrop, “attempts of the four-party contact group (US, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan) to prompt the Taliban movement to reconcile with Kabul, remain without results”, she noted. The Taliban captured the major city of Kunduz in October of 2015 marking the first such victory since the beginning of US combat operations in 2001.
According to reports, the broader role granted to the United States military will allow them to accompany Afghan forces and assist them more proactively on the battlefield.
Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland said last week that Nicholson was sending his assessment of the ongoing security threat there and the needs of the Afghan military to U.S. Central Command and to the Pentagon, and was expected to brief senior military leaders soon afterward.
Defense hawks been arguing for months that the rules of engagement should be expanded in the face of a resurgent Taliban and a struggling Afghan military.
“I had asked for more authorities for the commander on the ground to help the Afghans out, and if this is what that is, I would be all for it”, he said. Airstrikes could only be used in self-defense in what are known as “in extremis” situations when Afghan forces are about to be overrun or if there is an imminent danger to USA and Afghan forces, and for counter-terrorism missions carried out under “Freedom’s Sentinel”.
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“It is a realization that the policy that stressed on peace-making and political dialogues was premature and not framed according to ground realities”, Omar Samad, a former Afghan ambassador to Canada and France, said in an e-mail.
