Poland to send F-16 fighters on mission against IS

The U.S. was tentatively sticking with a plan to draw down the number of troops in Afghanistan from 9,800 to 5,500 by early next year while leaving ample room for President Barack Obama to reverse course, depending on how fighting against the Taliban goes this summer, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters on June 15 following a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation defense ministers in Brussels, U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said, “Carter told us the troop numbers and the dispositions are being looked at again”.

And they come on the heels of an announcement by President Barack Obama to expand the US military’s authority to support the Afghan forces in the air and on the ground. And it’s the latest indication that US involvement in Afghanistan is not going to wind down in the final months of Barack Obama’s presidency. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. However, he said “there should be no doubt about our commitment to Afghanistan”.

In 2014, President Obama had promised to reduce the count of United States troops in Afghanistan to 5000 by the end of 2015 but that hasn’t happened. “Everyone has an interest that our effort there is sustained.

Prime Minister [Haider] al-Abadi requested that we should expand that training into Iraq itself”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the Afghan Air Force (AAF) pilots are largely utilizing the available inventory to support the Afghan ground as they are fighting a resurgent Taliban.

The diplomat says it appears that allies will agree to keep troops in Afghanistan’s north and west, and the USA will keep forces in the south and east.

An American defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said despite the expanding role the USA troops would still not be involved in direct combat.

It would not be a surprise if Nicholson asks to delay the drawdown of US troops, the diplomat said.

The Taliban are refocusing their attention mostly on the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, and Uruzgan, according to United States and Afghan military officials, although the insurgents also have struck elsewhere, such as in Kunduz province in the north, where they overran and held the provincial capital for a few days last fall.

Obama last month authorized a rare US drone strike deep inside Pakistan, killing Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a raid which highlighted an aggressive new push to target the insurgents.