The Central Intelligence Agency's paramilitary branch is stepping up its covert attacks in Afghanistan, deploying small groups of officers and contractors to hunt and kill Taliban militants alongside Afghan commandos, two senior American officials tell The New York Times. The CIA had been focusing its Afghanistan efforts on battling al Qaeda and aiding the Afghan intelligence service, but President Trump and his CIA director, Mike Pompeo, appear to want the agency to play a more aggressive role in the world.
The CIA, with only hundreds of paramilitary officers spread around the world, "has traditionally been resistant to an open-ended campaign against the Taliban, the primary militant group in Afghanistan, believing it was a waste of the agency's time and money and would put officers at greater risk," The New York Times reports. "Former agency officials assert that the military, with its vast resources and manpower, is better suited to conducting large-scale counterinsurgencies." The apparent end goal of killing lower-level Taliban militants is convincing the Taliban to come to the negotiating table. You can read more at The New York Times.