NATO Considering Sending More Troops to Afghanistan

NATO is considering sending more alliance troops to Afghanistan, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday, according to an Associated Press report. “We have received a request from our military authorities to increase our military presence in Afghanistan with a few thousand troops,” he said after a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May in London. The troops would serve in the “train, assist, and advise” mission, helping Afghan forces as they fight to defeat the Taliban and other extremist forces. Stoltenberg said NATO would decide “on the scale and scope of the mission within weeks.” US Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of US Forces-Afghanistan, told Congress in February that the NATO mission there had a “shortfall of a few thousand troops.” NATO currently has 13,000 troops stationed in the country, and the US has 8,400. The Pentagon this week was expected to present a plan to the White House to increase the US troop presence in Afghanistan by as many as 5,000 troops.