The United States is set to send additional troops to Afghanistan’s embattled southern Helmand province in a bid to bolster local forces that have struggled to fend off persistent Taliban assaults, officials said Tuesday.
The new mission would focus on training and buttressing the 215th Corps of the Afghan army based in the province, a spokesperson for the US army told AFP.
It will also provide additional protection for the US advisors already on the ground.
“This was a planned deployment of additional personnel to both bolster force protection for the current staff of advisors and to provide additional advisors to help with ongoing efforts to re-man, re-equip, and re-train the 215th Corps,” said Colonel Michael Lawhorn, a spokesperson for the US command in Kabul.
The spokesman did not provide more information on the deployment, including troop numbers, but said the soldiers’ mission was to help “train, advise, and assist our Afghan counterparts”.
Helmand, a poppy producing province in southern Afghanistan, has seen some of the fiercest battles over the course of the of war that began almost fifteen years ago.
The Taliban have intensified their campaign in the province since the US-led combat mission in the war-torn country officially ended in 2014.