The number of U.S.-NATO-led coalition troops primarily fighting the Taliban and the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Afghanistan is expected to reach an estimated 25,000 troops next year, including 16,000 American service members.
The number of troops deployed so far, American military officials have indicated, is not sufficient enough to carry out U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy.
The plan’s success largely depends on an Afghan security force capable of pressuring the reluctant Taliban into a peace deal with the Kabul government.
“We fought most of the year … at the lowest level of capability that we’ve ever had in the 16 years,” U.S. Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the top commander of American and international troops in Afghanistan, told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday.
“So it was the lowest level of capability and the highest level of risk we’ve faced in this time. Part of the reason for the higher risk was [that] we’re only at 80 percent,” he continued, adding in reference to unfilled positions necessary to implement Trump’s strategy, “We were only at an 80 percent fill on our combined joint statement of requirements.”
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