U.S. to send over 3,000 troops to Afghanistan: Mattis

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday that the United States would send more than 3,000 troops to Afghanistan.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis arrives for a news conference at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan April 24, 2017.

"It is exactly over 3,000 somewhat and frankly I haven't signed the last of the orders right now as we look at specific, small elements that are going," Mattis told reporters.

"Most of them are on their way or under orders now," he added.

The move came weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his new Afghanistan strategy in a national address, in which he called a rapid exit of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan "unacceptable."

A Pentagon spokesperson said last month that 11,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan, thousands more than the previously acknowledged 8,400, which does not include troops on temporary assignment.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)