Thousands More US Troops In Afghanistan Than Previously Reported

Pentagon officials have said for the first time that there are about 11,000 US forces currently deployed in Afghanistan.

The number is far more than the 8,400 total reported under the previous administration's troop cap.

Military officials have quietly acknowledged for a long time that there were more personnel in the country than the cap allowed, but commanders shuffled troops in and out, labelled many "temporary" and used other accounting tactics to artificially keep the public count low. 

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said: 

"To be clear, this is not an announcement of a troop increase, we are simply being more transparent about the way we communicate America's military commitment in Afghanistan."

White declined to provide similar details for Iraq and Syria, where there are also thousands more than the Pentagon publicly admits.

The Afghanistan troop announcement comes as the Pentagon is preparing to deploy about 3,900 more Americans to the war to expand the training and advising of Afghan forces and boost counter-terror operations. 

Speaking to Forces News yesterday, Lord Richards, a former Chief of the Defence Staff, said the UK should send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan to support US President Donald Trump’s new strategy