President Obama has signed off on an expansion of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, in an effort to bolster support of Afghan forces battling a resurgent Taliban, a senior Pentagon official told the Washington Examiner.
The official said under the new authority, U.S. military advisers will be permitted to accompany Afghan conventional forces into the field to advise and assist in combat missions, but will not be on the front lines.
Currently U.S. troops accompany only Afghanistan’s elite special operations troops on a limited number of missions.
The expansion will also give U.S. commanders more flexibility in ordering airstrikes to support Afghan offensives, since American troops will be with their Afghan partners.
U.S. advisers are supposed to avoid places where they are likely to be drawn into the line of fire, remaining behind the last covered overlook or terrain feature. But in combat, that is not always possible.
“The additional flexibility will offer greater opportunities for U.S. forces to accompany and enable Afghan conventional forces – both on the ground and in the air – as we have already been doing with Afghan special operations forces,” a senior administration official said. “In doing so, the U.S. forces will more proactively support Afghan conventional forces in two critical ways: One, with more American support, especially through close-air support; and two, by accompanying and advising Afghan conventional forces on the ground and in the air.”
Under the current rules of engagement, U.S. air power can be used to protect U.S. or coalition troops on the ground, prevent the overrun of Afghan forces, or target al Qaida or Islamic State fighters.
But since the official end of the NATO combat mission in December of 2014, U.S. commanders have lacked authority to order offensive strikes to enable Afghan troops as they engage the Taliban.
The U.S. strategy was to instead help Afghanistan build its own air force to provide close-air support. But U.S. commanders say an effective air force is at least three years away.
Afghanistan has only eight fixed-wing A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft, and only four have been conducting strikes.
“These new, limited authorities are modifications of our ongoing train, advise and assist mission that we believe will allow us to better support the [Afghanistan defense force], maintain our counterterrorism mission, and protect our forces,” the administration official said. “This does not mean a blanket order to target the Taliban.”
The shift in strategy stops short of completely “taking the gloves off,” as advocated by former U.S. Central Command chief retired Gen. Davis Petraeus last month, but will result in more leeway in striking the Taliban from the air.
The White House has been reluctant to approve new authorities to expand the air campaign for two reasons. One is that it is a tacit admission that the war President Obama promised to end is nowhere near over as it stretches into its 15th year. And two is that the U.S. fears that if it steps in with air power, Afghanistan will never get its own air force off the ground.
The decision to allow U.S. troops to accompany Afghan forces in their “advise and assist” roles raises another key question: Will the president be forced to once again delay the planned drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 9,800 to 5,500 by the end of the year?
The U.S. has two separate missions in Afghanistan, the support of Afghan troops dubbed Operation Resolute Support, and the unilateral counterterrorism mission “Freedom’s Sentinel.”
Former top Afghanistan commander Gen. John Campbell testified before a Senate committee before he retired that both missions could not be done with only 5,000 troops.
The president’s decision to expand the Afghan support mission will increase to pressure to keep the current level of troops in Afghanistan into 2017.
Susan Crabtree contributed to this report.
