DOD will not release number of additional U.S. troops going to Afghanistan

The Defense Department, as a matter of policy, will not provide the specific number of additional U.S. troops headed to Afghanistan, though Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has already signed some deployment orders, according to a top Pentagon spokesman.

The decision not to release the number follows an Aug. 30 briefing during which the Pentagon acknowledged there are approximately 11,600 U.S. troops already in Afghanistan, rather than the 8,400 that had been routinely reported.

Col. Robert Manning, chief of defense press operations, told reporters in a Pentagon briefing Friday the public would receive troop numbers that are “more accurate” than those provided in the past, “but [are] approximate.”

“We're not going to silhouette ourselves or our troop process or flow,” he said. “We will not provide the exact number of troops.”

The decision stands in contrast with previous statements Mattis made to the press. On Aug. 31, according to a DOD transcript, a reporter asked the secretary if DOD would eventually disclose the number of additional troops being sent to Afghanistan.“Yeah,” Mattis said. “I'll give it to you about how many more we're sending.”

Mattis, at the time, said DOD was releasing the 11,600 number because he “owed the American people transparency.”

Asked today if Mattis misspoke, Manning said “no.”

“I don't think he misspoke when he said he was going to talk numbers with you at that time, but conditions have possibly changed and we're not going to discuss numbers or timelines,” Manning said.

Meanwhile, media reports indicate DOD plans to deploy between 3,000 and 4,000 additional U.S. troops.