The CIA is expanding its covert operations in Afghanistan, sending small teams of highly experienced officers and contractors alongside Afghan forces to hunt and kill Taliban militants across the country, according to two senior American officials, the latest sign of the agency’s increasingly integral role in US President Donald Trump’s counter-terrorism strategy.
New York Times reported that the assignment marks a shift for the CIA in Afghanistan, where it had primarily been focused on defeating Al Qaeda and helping the Afghan intelligence service.
The CIA declined to comment on its expanded role in Afghanistan, which will put more lower-level Taliban militants in its cross hairs.
The new effort will be led by small units known as counter-terrorism pursuit teams. They are managed by CIA paramilitary officers from the agency’s Special Activities Division and operatives from the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence arm, and include elite American troops from the Joint Special Operations Command.
The change also comes during an increase in violence in Afghanistan in recent months. Attacks on security forces and the police, including at least three last week, have taken a heavy toll. A record number of civilians 1,662 were killed in the first half of the year, and another 3,581 were wounded, according to the United Nations.
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