US strategy in Afghanistan will require more troops

More troops need to be deployed to Afghanistan to break the stalemate, the head of US Central Command has said – more than two years after Barack Obama announced the end of combat in the war-torn country.

Army General Joseph Votel told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday that ‘additional resources’ will be required to carry out a new US strategy, like reported by dailymail.co.uk.

Although he did not give a figure for the number of troops needed, last month General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, said thousands more were required.

Votel told the committee: ‘I do believe it will involve additional forces to ensure that we can make the advise and assist mission more effective.’

He said a strategy was still being developed, and did not reveal when a final decision would be made.

General Nicholson last month signaling that 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 US troops remain more than 15 years after the Taliban government was toppled by US-backed Afghan forces.

The difficult situation in Afghanistan was highlighted on Wednesday when 49 people were killed following an attack on a military hospital in Kabul by gunmen.

In an attack which ISIS claimed responsibility for, the gunmen went through the 400-bed hospital, shooting doctors, patients and visitors and battling security forces for several hours in a sophisticated operation.

The US went to war in Afghanistan in October 2001, less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, because the Taliban refused to extradite Osama bin Laden and expel Al Qaeda.

In 2009, the newly elected President Obama announced 30,000 troops would be deployed to Afghanistan in a ‘surge’ which would last 18 months.

But in December 2014, he announced the end of US combat, stating that the longest war in US history was now over, having claimed the lives of more than 2,200 American service personnel.

In a written statement he said: ‘Our personnel will continue to face risks, but this reflects the enduring commitment of the United States to the Afghan people and to a united, secure and sovereign Afghanistan that is never again used as a source of attacks against our nation.’

He said the remaining 10,000 American troops in Afghanistan would still face danger, but the war was over.

But there is increased pressure for a new strategy following an ISIS resurgence, which has seen the group establish itself in Afghanistan under the name Islamic State Khorasan Province.