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BRUSSELS European allies will tell U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis on Thursday they are willing to help step up NATO's mission in Afghanistan - but only if the United States is clear on its strategy, diplomats said.

The United States wants to send 3,000-5,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and other NATO members might send around 1,200.

While no decisions have been made, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said U.S. allies would send more troops to help Afghans "break the stalemate" with resurgent Taliban rebels.

As part of the broader efforts, Britain will send just under 100 additional troops Secretary of Defense Michael Fallon said as he arrived for a meeting of his NATO counterparts.

"We are in it for the long haul, it's a democracy that has asked for our help and it is important that Europe responds," Fallon said.

"Transnational terror groups that operate in Afghanistan are a threat to us in Western Europe and to the continued existence of the Afghan state."

NATO leads some 13,450 multinational troops in Afghanistan, who are training the country's armed forces. About 8,400 are U.S. personnel, some 6,900 of whom come under the NATO command structure.

Fifteen members and partners of the military alliance have said they will contribute more troops and equipment to the training mission for 2018, following a closed-door meeting of military planners this month.

"This is nothing like a surge, this is well within the bounds of what is feasible politically," a senior NATO diplomat said, citing a willingness to meet U.S. President Donald Trump's demands that the alliance do more to fight Islamist militants.

A decision by NATO allies to send more troops would reflect alarm about territorial gains by Taliban rebels and military and civilian casualties.

However, diplomats said everything hung on the Afghan strategy being devised by Mattis, who will address NATO defense ministers later on Thursday, partly because many allies depend on U.S. equipment to be able to carry out their training.

"We need clarity from the United States," a second NATO diplomat said.

Some diplomats expressed frustration that the process had dragged out months, saying they had been repeatedly promised the new U.S. strategy, firstly by the NATO leaders' meeting in May in Brussels and then by Thursday's defense ministers' meeting.

"The confusion in Washington has had an impact," a third diplomat said.

"HOW WE END THIS WAR"

The concern about delay extends beyond Brussels. In Washington, Republican Senator John McCain recently scolded Mattis during a televised Senate hearing.

"It makes it hard for us to support you when we don't have a strategy," McCain said.

U.S. and allied forces have been fighting for nearly 16 years against Taliban Islamists who harbored al Qaeda militants behind the attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001.

For Mattis, the NATO trip will bring him one step closer to an expected mid-July finish line for his long-awaited Afghan war plan, which he hopes will break a stalemate in America's longest war and eventually bring it to a successful conclusion.

Speaking to reporters during his flight to Europe, he said he would brief allies about the U.S. assessment of the situation in Afghanistan and his efforts to fill in "any gaps left in the strategy".

He declined to say how many troops he expected from NATO allies.

Mattis said he aimed to return to Washington to "finish out some things" in consultation with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford, who just returned from Afghanistan, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

"And then we'll present to the president a strategy that's been informed by our allies, to include Afghanistan of course, and given a framework that is regional in nature and focuses on: how we end this war," he said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Robin Emmott,; editing by Andrew Roche and Ed Osmond)

SYDNEY/VATICAN CITY Cardinal George Pell, a top adviser to Pope Francis, said on Thursday he was innocent of charges of sexual abuse in his native Australia, and that the pontiff had given him leave of absence to return there to defend himself.

WARSAW A trip to Poland by U.S. President Donald Trump next week may feel like a diplomatic coup for the right-wing government, but western European nations are uneasy it will encourage Warsaw's defiance towards Brussels.

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What next in Afghanistan? Europe seeks US leadership - Reuters

The Army is deploying about 1,500 soldiers to Afghanistan this week, but U.S. officials say the troop movement is not part of any increase in forces in the war zone.

Troops of the 82nd Airborne Division began leaving Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Tuesday. A U.S. military official told VOA the troops will be assigned to duty in Kabul, Kandahar and Helmand provinces, in addition to areas in the east and north of Afghanistan.

General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been in Afghanistan this week for meetings with Afghan and American officials as well as coalition leaders and troops. The Marine general is said to be working on the final elements of a military strategy that will include expanding the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan by nearly 4,000 soldiers.

Joe Buccino, an Army spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, said the troops leaving Fort Bragg this week are replacing a unit of the 101st Airborne Division, a regular movement to keep fresh units in the field.

President Donald Trump's administration has been considering how many additional troops to send to Afghanistan.

'Not winning' in Afghanistan

Defense Secretary James Mattis told Congress two weeks ago that the United States and its NATO allies "are not winning" the fight against extremist insurgents in Afghanistan, and that a new strategy is needed. U.S. forces are helping Afghan government forces resist incursions by the Taliban as well as the Islamic State group.

"We will correct this as soon as possible," Mattis said, promising members of the Senate Armed Services Committee he would provide details of the new U.S. direction in Afghanistan by mid-July.

Mattis is off to Brussels on Thursday to consult with other members of the NATO alliance about troop contributions and other support in Afghanistan.

No matter what decision the Pentagon chief announces next month on how many more American troops to send to help defend the Kabul government, the strategy will still rely on Afghan forces taking the lead role in providing security around the country, analysts and U.S. officials have said.

Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution suggests the Trump administration's strategy will not depart significantly from former President Barack Obama's Afghanistan policy.

"Mattis and Trump are just repairing a mistake, in effect, that I think President Obama made," O'Hanlon told VOA. And they are, he added, "more properly carrying out Obama's own strategy than Obama did himself."

The mistake Obama made, according to the veteran analyst, was in reducing U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan from about 100,000 in May 2011 to less than 10,000 over a four-year span.

"That was probably too fast and too low," O'Hanlon told VOA. "So by restoring just a few thousand more [troops], I think we can get advisers out in the field with some of the key Afghan units and, hopefully, really stabilize the situation."

VOA's Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.

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US Sends Fresh Troops to Afghanistan as Policy Debate Continues - Voice of America

Irans speaker of parliament has criticized NATO, saying it is neither brave enough nor serious enough to eliminate terrorism in Afghanistan.

In a meeting with Afghan Parliament Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the Second Meeting of Eurasian Parliament Speakers,the Speaker of Iran's Parliament, Ali Larijani,said that it was unnecessary for foreign troops to be in the country and that Afghanistan was capable of fighting terrorism on its own.

IRNA, Irans state news agency, said Larijani stated that NATO is in Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism but that their protracted presence in the country reveals that NATO is neither brave to fight terrorism nor is it serious in this respect.

Larijani also reportedly said that Iran will help Afghanistan in its fight against terrorism but that Tehran believes that reorganizing Afghan forces to fight terrorism is essential.

IRNA stated that Larijani said Iran underlines the need for unity among Afghan political forces because gaps among the forces will have plenty of negative impacts.

Condemning the recent twin terrorist attacks in Tehran, Ibrahimi said that Afghanistan is seeking a suitable solution to tackle terrorism so as to ensure it will not spread to neighboring states.

Larijani and Ibrahimi arrived in Seoul on Monday to Attend the Second Meeting of Eurasian Parliament Speakers.

First round of the event was held in Moscow last year with parliamentary officials of 20 countries in attendance.

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Afghanistan Capable Of Fighting Terrorists On Its Own: Iran - TOLOnews

Dunford was scheduled to meet with coalition leaders and forces as well as Afghan officials, according to his spokesman US Navy Capt. Greg Hicks.

His trip also comes as the US is deciding whether to deploy thousands more troops to help bolster local forces as they battle the Taliban and ISIS' local branch.

While Secretary of Defense James Mattis told Congress earlier this month that a new strategy for Afghanistan and the wider region, to include Pakistan, should be formulated by "mid-July," President Donald Trump has already given Mattis the authority to make decisions about how many US troops are deployed to Afghanistan without first having to get formal agreement from the White House.

The Pentagon and White House have been reviewing an option to send 3,000 to 5,000 additional US troops to help train and advise Afghan forces.

Mattis has said that these additional American military advisers will allow coalition forces to more effectively support Afghan troops on the battlefield while also helping to provide close air support that he said would give government troops a major advantage over the insurgents.

Defense officials have said that the number of advisers currently in Afghanistan is insufficient to support Afghan units on the front lines, and that coalition troops are largely relegated to advising at divisional headquarters.

It is possible that a decision on additional US forces could be made prior to an overall change in strategy in order to bolster the Afghan military as it faces an uptick in battles typically associated with the summer "fighting season" in Afghanistan.

But other officials have said that a decision on troops will be tied to the Pentagon's ongoing broader military strategic review which is focused on both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There are currently about 8,400 US troops devoted to Operation Resolute Support in Afghanistan, which encompasses both US counter terrorism forces to fight ISIS and the Taliban as well as a separate effort to train, advise and assist Afghan forces.

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America's top military officer arrives in Afghanistan as US weighs strategy shift - CNN

The high point of Information Systems Technician 1st Class (IW/EXW) Justin Sullivans Navy career was a four-year tour with Navy Special Warfare Group Twos mobile communication team, deploying alongside the elite SEALs all over the world including Afghanistan, where he served two combat tours at remote operating bases.

I started out in the Navy as a four-year guy, Sullivan told Navy Times.Truthfully, being from Wyoming, there wasnt a whole lot out there and part of the reason I joined was to get out of the state and see the world, he said.

My plan was to go to college, but I couldnt afford it. Then my school had a National Guard recruiter come in and he was talking about free college in the military and that got me thinking that I wanted to serve my country and get my degree, so I joined the Navy.

But along the way, something changed for the now-10-year sailor from Gillette, Wyoming.

I was fortunate to have a senior chief at my first command who had already done a tour in mobile communications for special warfare and he thought I might like it, too,Sullivansaid. Once I got there, the type of training, the type of people in that community and the deployments that was my light bulb moment I realized this is what I want to do with my life and now Im committed to this.

Sullivan was selected among hundreds of nominees to be this year's Navy Times Service Member of the Year.

It helps that he excels at his job, too, having earned one Army Commendation Medal, three Navy Achievement Medals and two Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medals. His other awards include the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, NATO Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Good Conduct Medals, and Overseas Service and Sea Service Deployment ribbons.

During his first deployment to Afghanistan in 2012,Sullivandirected five combat operations as a radio operator, including three medical evacuations from remote outposts. It was his expertise that was credited with saving the lives of two Afghan soldiers, which helped strengthen ties with locals.

His skill and courage ensured his command maintained 100 percent uninterrupted communications. He was also responsible for three tactical computer communications systems which connected to devices supporting 45 special warfare operators.

On a subsequent deployment, he stepped outside of his comfort zone while helping a team of Navy Seabees.

We were out in the middle of nowhere, no barracks or places to sleep, Sullivan said.

We were only supposed to be out there a month, setting up a new headquarters unit and had deployed with a bunch of Seabees who were there to do the construction for the base.

But his team couldnt set up communications networks until the buildings were up, so he and his fellow sailors decided to pitch in with the Seabees to help speed things along.

We were waiting for the building to happen so myself and some other ITs, decided we would just go out and help the Seabees, he said. I got a lot of knowledge from that. I learned how to frame houses, put roofs on buildings and how to run electrical, as well as how to fuel and maintain generators.

In the end, Sullivan was involved with building and equipping five barracks, recovering 400 fuel barrels from air drops and managing over $200,000 in food stores.

I was a junior sailor and a bit immature when I arrived there, he said. But that command definitely turned me into something else a better person and a better sailor.

By Navy standards, his career has been a bit backwards, as most young sailors head to ships first and then do tours elsewhere as their careers allowed. Sullivan, though, started out with overseas shore duty in the busy 6th Fleet in Europe, working in communications in Naples, Italy.

Sullivan was a swimmer in high school, and though he says he wasnt good enough to win a college scholarship, the sport provided him with a means to mentor, something he spends a lot time doing.

During his first tour in Naples, Sullivan was awarded his first Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal for volunteering over 1,400 hours coaching the Naples Tiger Sharks Swim Team. The amount of time he spends volunteering has only increased since then, and while stationed at Naval Special Warfare Group Two in Little Creek, Virginia, he was awarded another volunteer medal.

At his current command, Information Warfare Training Command, Corry Station, his day job is as an instructor, developing the next generation of information systems sailors for the fleet. But off duty, he's also busy, spendingnearly 380 hours volunteering as a teacher, mentor and safety observer with the Naval Sea Cadets Corps, a Navy-related organization that teaches teenagers, ages 13 to 17, about the Navy, leadership and community service.

For his continued efforts in his community, Sullivan has garnered two President's Volunteer Service Awards one bronze and one silver and has been given the Navy Leagues Outstanding Service Member Award.

Sullivan is currently eligible for promotion to chief petty officer, and his records will be reviewed in July to see if he'll step into the chiefs mess. Hes also weighing the idea of becoming a limited duty officer and heading to the wardroom.

For now, his focus is on where hell go next as his three-years of shore duty comes to an end. Soon, he'll be underway on sea duty for the first time.

Having never stepped on a Navy vessel yet, Im ready for this next challenge. Im geared more towards destroyers and cruisers theyre more operational, the crews are smaller and as someone on my level, I want that experience and that leadership opportunity, he said.

The Navy wants well-rounded sailors thats been drummed in my head by mentors all through the past 10 years. By and large, those who have done tours at different types of commands are the most successful in their careers.

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Navy Times' Sailor of the Year is an Afghanistan vet and an all-star volunteer - NavyTimes.com