The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it would start taking into account temporarily deployed military units when reporting troop numbers in Afghanistan, with updated numbers for Iraq and Syria to follow.
With the change, the US military now acknowledges it has 11,000 troops in Afghanistan, up from a previously reported 8,400. Until now it had only shared force management levels, which account for troops and units meant to complete a mission but do not count the hundreds of personnel temporarily deployed into the fight.