NATO Troop Increase Plan Draws Criticism in Afghanistan

As NATO allies converge in Brussels for a key summit, one topic on the agenda will be a potential increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan - a move met with strong opposition by many in Kabul.

The military alliance began considering a troop increase earlier this month after it received a request from army chiefs for more soldiers to help in the fight against the Taliban, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.

The prospect of a troop surge might have drawn considerable support in Brussels and Washington, but in Kabul the situation is different.

“They are thinking of sending soldiers ... They [the soldiers] will not do anything,” Sher Mohammad Karimi, a retired four-star general in the Afghan National Army, told Al Jazeera.

“If they are advisers, then it’s OK.”

Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish agreed, saying that local forces needed better equipment and training.

“What we need now is bombing planes and also modern engineering technology,” he told Al Jazeera.

Since NATO’s combat mission in Afghanistan formally ended in 2014, Taliban attacks have intensified and Afghan military and civilian casualties have risen.

NATO already has more than 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, including around 6,900 US and 500 British military personnel, who are training the Afghan armed forces to eventually take over the country’s defence and security. The US has an additional 1,500 soldiers conducting assist missions directly under Pentagon command.