The Trump administration is reportedly stepping up its counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan by calling on the CIA to conduct covert operations to hunt and kill Taliban militants in the country.
As a signal of accelerating counterterrorism efforts under the Trump administration, the agency is sending small teams of experienced officers and contractors to work alongside Afghan forces to go after the Taliban, according to senior American officials who spoke to the New York Times.
The CIA in Afghanistan has previously been focused on combatting Al Qaeda and supporting the Afghanistan’s intelligence community or training the Afghan militia rather than conducting open-ended campaigns against the Taliban, the paper reported.
The agency’s new role is aligned with its new director’s, Mike Pompeo, view that the CIA must take a proactive role in conducting large-scale counterinsurgencies across the world.
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