A US Marine looks on as Afghan National Army soldiers raise the Afghan National flag on an armed vehicle during a training exercise to deal with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) in Helmand province, August 28, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
More American troops are gearing up to hit the frontlines in Afghanistan, says General John Nicholson, who commands US forces in the country.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Nicholson said US troops levels in Afghanistan were slated to increase dramatically under President Donald Trump’s new strategy to extend the military campaign that began in 2001.
There are “well over 1,000 advisers out at any given time,” Nicholson said. “Next year, however, this will increase dramatically.”
The general said the new plan required deploying more US advisers in the battlefronts alongside Afghan military forces.
“Those teams [the Army brigade] will be backed up by US combat enablers, not only for the protection of our own force, but for support of Afghans as well,” Nicholson said.
The commander hailed the Trump administration’s new South Asia approach as a “game changer,” saying it had already begun to pay dividends.
The US military dropped 751 bombs in Afghanistan last month, the highest monthly number since 2010.
Under the new strategy, the US Army’s 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) will also be deployed to the conflict-ridden country this spring. The new unit is tasked with training and advising forces from US allies.
The SFAB is currently under training to work with joint terminal attack controllers — US military personnel specialized in calling in close-air support.
“Any deployment to Afghanistan is inherently dangerous, and our soldiers, in particular those of the SFAB, are well-trained and prepared to handle themselves in a variety of operational environments,” said Colonel Joseph Scrocca, a spokesman for the XVIII Airborne Corps.
There has also been a major increase in the number of missions carried out by the US air force, as American aircraft have tripled the number of munitions dropped on purported militant targets across the country.
Militant revenue from narcotics
The number of airstrikes and sorties are expected to increase even as more troops begin to ramp up efforts that Washington says are aimed at defeating Taliban and Daesh militants. Nicholson said the US forces were also focused on cutting Taliban’s revenue from cultivating poppy crops.
The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was largely to protect the heroin industry and exploit the country's valuable minerals, says an American scholar.
Afghanistan is the world's top cultivator of poppy, from which opium and heroin are produced. Taliban militants are heavily involved in the poppy cultivation and opium distribution especially in areas under their control.
Despite the US claim, the opium production in the country rose by 87 percent and stands at a record level of 9,000 metric tons (9,921 US tons) so far this year, compared to 4,800 metric tons (5,291 US tons) in 2016, according to a recent survey by the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
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