Trump gives Pentagon authority to set troop levels

US President Donald Trump has given the Pentagon new authority to decide the troop levels in Afghanistan, a US official said. 
The move could lead to a deployment of thousands more troops as commanders decide the way forward in the 15-year-old war, The Washington Post reported.
The US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly, said the move is similar to the April decision that gave the Pentagon more authority to set troop levels in Iraq and Syria. The change, the Pentagon said, was so units could deploy at their proper strength to better maintain unit cohesion.
With the new authority, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could authorize deployment of additional troops to Afghanistan, something commanders on the ground have been requesting for months. Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, and his direct superior, US Central Command head Gen. Joseph Votel, have both made cases for sending a “few thousand” more troops. If sent, the forces would help the fledgling Afghan military regain portions of the country that have fallen to the Taliban since US forces ended their combat mission there in 2014.
The decision from the White House comes the same day Mattis told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee that “we are not winning” in Afghanistan. 
Mattis said the Taliban was surging throughout the country and that he planned to present lawmakers with a strategy for the United States’ longest-running war by mid-July.
In the first eight months of 2016, Afghan forces suffered 15,000 casualties, including more than 5,000 killed.
 
Source: MENA