MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th March, 2021) There are roughly 3,500 US troops stationed in Afghanistan, which is 1,000 servicemen more than it was officially disclosed by Washington, The New York Times newspaper reported on Sunday, citing US, European and Afghan officials.
On January 15, Washington said that the Pentagon fully carried out former President Donald Trump's order to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan from 14,000 to 2,500. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden's team has not yet made the final decision whether to fulfill Trump's deal with the Taliban and withdraw the remaining 2,500 troops by May 1.
"To some extent, the fudging of the numbers reflects the arbitrariness of political fixation on declaring specific numbers," Laurel Miller, a former top State Department official who worked on Afghanistan and Pakistan diplomacy, told the newspaper.
The stark difference in numbers is explained by the fact that some Special Operation forces and temporary units are stationed in Afghanistan "off the books," according to a senior US official. Those include elite army rangers from Joint Special Operations Command Forces, another US source explained.
The New York Times noted that the presence of more troops in the country than the Defense Department officially disclosed was a common practice, used from Syria to Yemen to Mali.
The Pentagon maintains that troop numbers in Afghanistan are still at 2,500, as stated by the media outlet.
In a leaked letter addressed to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced several proposals on how to accelerate the peace process in Afghanistan, including a revised deal for a 90-day reduction of violence and a UN-facilitated conference with international stakeholders, including Russia, China, India, Iran and Pakistan.
According to the newspaper, the letter, which asked the Afghan leader to "understand the urgency of my [Blinken] tone," was received by Ghani as a personal slight.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last month that the troops' withdrawal would proceed as scheduled and complete in May only if the Taliban implement the terms of the agreement, namely reducing violence and cutting ties with terrorist organizations.
A US-led NATO contingent has been present in Afghanistan since 2003 as part of a UN-mandated international coalition known as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). In 2015, ISAF was replaced with the Resolute Support Mission with a non-combat mandate to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces. The mission currently includes around 9,600 troops from 36 NATO and partner countries.
