Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will depart Tuesday on his first trip to Europe as Pentagon chief, meeting with defense ministers from numerous countries as Washington considers deploying thousands more troops to Afghanistan and altering its strategy to more aggressively counter the Islamic State. Mattis plans to host a meeting of senior officials in the so-called anti-ISIL coalition and also meet with European defense chiefs and Germany to take part in the Munich Security Conference. American media reported that in Afghanistan, meanwhile, US Army General John Nicholson has pointed to a shortfall of few thousand military advisers, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, noting that the US maintains a force of nearly 8,400 troops in the nation among a total coalition number of 13,300. Meanwhile Afghan government has welcomed deployment of more US troops in Afghanistan.
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