Mattis says US is not winning Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: The United States is not winning in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress on Tuesday, saying he was crafting a new war strategy to brief lawmakers about by mid-July that is widely expected to call for thousands more US troops.

The remarks were a blunt reminder of the gloom underscoring US military assessments of the war between the US-backed Afghan government and Taliban insurgents, classified by US commanders as a “stalemate” despite almost 16 years of fighting. “We are not winning in Afghanistan right now. And we will correct this as soon as possible,” Mattis said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Afghan government was assessed by the US military to control or influence just 59.7% of Afghanistan’s 407 districts as of Feb. 20, a nearly 11 percentagepoint decrease from the same time in 2016, according to data released by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

A truck-bomb explosion in Kabul last month killed more than 150 people, making it the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. The Trump administration has been carrying out a review of Afghanistan, and conversations were revolving around sending between 3,000 and 5,000 US and coalition troops. Deliberations include giving more authority to forces on the ground and taking more aggressive action against Taliban.

John McCain, the chairman of the panel, pressed Mattis on the deteriorating situation, saying the US had an urgent need for a change in strategy. REUTERS