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The White House said in a statement Thursday that Trump would name John Bass, the US ambassador to Turkey, to lead diplomatic efforts in the war-torn nation.

Bass has been in his current post since 2014. Prior to that he was ambassador to Georgia, also during the Obama administration. The White House said he had served at six US missions overseas.

The announcement of the nomination came as the US undertakes a review of its strategy in Afghanistan.

The US embassy in Kabul is currently under the leadership of the charg d' affaires, Hugo Llorens.

Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have faced criticism over the pace of State Department nominations. South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham took the two to task in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" in early July, citing a lack of diplomatic leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a particular cause for concern.

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Trump taps ambassador to Turkey as new top diplomat in Afghanistan - CNN

When Maj. Gen. Lee Quintas took command of the 3rd Infantry Division in May, he said Fort Stewart felt like home. Now, just a few months into his tenure as commander of the storied Marne Division, Quintas and other senior leaders are headed to Afghanistan to help the war-torn countrys security forces.

The Marne Express is now ready to leave the station, Quintas said Friday after he and Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel Hendrex cased the divisions colors in preparation to deploy with about 250 other soldiers from the divisions Headquarters Battalion.

The 3rd ID soldiers will replace 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters at Bagram Airfield as the U.S. forces national support element in Afghanistan. During the deployment, which is expected to last about nine months, Quintas will serve as commander of Bagram and as deputy commanding general for support for the NATO-led Operation Resolute Support mission.

That means providing food, fuel, ammunition, life support and equipment for the entire operation in Afghanistan for the coalition, Quintas said Friday.

The primary mission will be to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces.

Hendrex, who just got back from Afghanistan and has been deployed there four other times, said he has seen the mission in the country change drastically over the last five years.

The last time I was there, there were over 110,000 U.S. soldiers on the ground; we have less than 10 percent now, Hendrex said.

Hendrex noted improvements in Afghan special forces and aerial combat capabilities.

Theyre conducting their own unilateral operations, he said.

There are currently about 8,400 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and about 350,000 Afghan security troops and police, senior 3rd ID staff said.

The training role is widespread, Quintas said.

The essential footprint is every Afghan corps has a train, advise and assist team with them led by a brigadier general or higher, he said.

Two of 3rd IDs deputy commanding generals will serve in direct training and advising roles with Afghan security forces. Most of the deployed soldiers will be at Bagram, but Quintas said some will be located in Qatar and Kuwait.

There is still the possibility of danger. Quintas said one of his top priorities is ensuring safety at Bagram, where there was a suicide bomb attack last year. While it is generally secure, Bagram could be targeted by infiltrators or hit by indirect fire, he said.

There is a significant element of Taliban that remain and contest the government of Afghanistan as it exists today, Quintas said. Were training (the Afghans) to fight that element. Its also important, I think, for the American people to know that there are 20-some odd terrorist groups that operate in Afghanistan. Part of what were doing is fighting the away game. Were taking the fight to them in Afghanistan so that they are suppressed and they do not have an opportunity to ever come here.

During the deployment, 3rd ID soldiers still at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield will be led by Task Force Marne, which was activated Friday. Its a busy year for the rest of the division. Among other things, its 1st Brigade Armored Combat Team is preparing for a second National Training Center Rotation and its 2nd Brigade Combat Team is in the process of transitioning into an armored brigade.

Col. Sean Bernabe, Task Force Marne commander, said his priorities echo Quintas and the Armys in general.

Priority No. 1 is readiness in all of its facets, Bernabe said. The No. 2 priority is to make sure that Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield remain the best installations in our Army, and the third is to make sure that strengthen and enhance the already great relationships we have with the communities around Fort Stewart and around Hunter Army Airfield.

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About 250 3rd ID soldiers prepare for Afghanistan - Savannah Morning News

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) reopened a small medical clinic in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Saturday, their first facility there since the American airstrikes that destroyed a hospital in 2015.

The opening of this clinic is the first step toward providing more medical assistance in Kunduz, Silvia Dallatomasina, head of programs for MSF in Afghanistan, told Reuters. And for us its an important step.

Since the air attack by American special forces in 2015, which killed 42 patients, medical staff, and caregivers at the MSF trauma center, the medical aid group has been trying to secure assurances from American and Afghan military officials that their medical facilities would be respected and protected.

We are still finalizing commitments but we believe we were able to reach an agreement, Dallatomasina said.

The new clinic in Kunduz, which is not situated at the site of the destroyed hospital, will only provide outpatient treatment of minor or chronic injuries, she said.

Patients who need more advanced care including X-rays will still need to go to the government-run regional hospital, which has been overworked amid heavy fighting in the province.

The regional hospital is quite overwhelmed, so we want to try to reduce that burden by treating less serious injuries, Dallatomasina said.

While no final plans have been confirmed, MSF hopes to begin building a new trauma center in Kunduz as early as 2018, although likely on a smaller scale than the previous facility, she said.

The MSF trauma center was destroyed during a period in 2015 when Taliban militants briefly overran the city. An American military probe concluded that the attack was the result of human error and equipment failure, among other factors.

At least sixteen U.S. military personnel were disciplined for their role, but MSF has criticized the lack of independent investigation into the incident.

While Afghan troops, still backed by U.S. warplanes and special forces, have prevented the Taliban from seizing the city again, fighting has continued.

The security in Kunduz is still quite volatile, and we know that the needs are really dire, Dallatomasina said.

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Medical Charity MSF Reopens Clinic in Afghanistan - Voice of America

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Cat rescued from U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan war zone now ... News & Observer (blog) Hooch was a proud resident of the U.S. embassy in Kabul and escaped an extermination order in 2011, getting heroically toted across international lines to ... and more »

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Cat rescued from U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan war zone now ... - News & Observer (blog)

President Trump suggested in a visit to the Pentagon Thursday that he might hold off on sending more troops to Afghanistan, despite a recent order that he signed authorizing the Pentagon to add more forces.

Asked if he would send more troops to Afghanistan, where the Taliban have made significant gains in recent months, Trump replied: Well see. And were doing very well against ISIS. ISIS is falling fast.

The fight against the Islamic State in Afghanistan is only a tiny piece of the broader battle in the country to stabilize Afghanistans faltering central government and slow the Talibans battlefield momentum.

Trump gave Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority more than a month ago to send as many as 3,900 additional troops to Afghanistan on top of the 8,500 currently there. Most of those forces would be used to bolster the Afghan Army in its fight against the Taliban, rather than battle the relatively small Islamic State force in the country.

But Mattis has yet to send those additional forces and some U.S. officials have speculated that either he or the White House could be having second thoughts.

Hes clearly being cautious about cashing that check, said a former U.S. official who has participated in the administration debate. Mattis is either not persuaded that theres a strategic rationale for the troops or hes not persuaded that the decision will ultimately fly with the president or both.

Trumps remarks at the Pentagon, where he met with senior commanders who gave him a briefing on the status of U.S. forces globally, is likely to add to the uncertainty surrounding the possible deployment of U.S. forces.

On Wednesday, Trump presided over a rare meeting of his full national security team Wednesday in the White House that focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan and the prospects for peace talks with the Taliban.

Trump has said little about Americas longest war since taking office in January, but the debate over how to stabilize the country and reverse the Talibans momentum has divided top officials in the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House in recent weeks.

The meeting Wednesday was designed to tee up final decisions for the president in what has been a long and difficult policy review, said current and former U.S. officials.

The meeting that Trump led in the White House did not focus on the size of the American force in Afghanistan but looked at Americas broader approach to the region and its strategy regarding Pakistan, which has provided a haven for the Taliban.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster and U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have pressed for a more punitive approach to Pakistan aimed at forcing it to cut ties to the Afghan Taliban.

But such an approach has been met with skepticism by senior officials in the Pentagon and the State Department, who said that Pakistan is unlikely to change its behavior and that efforts to pressure Islamabad would likely lead to greater instability in the region.

Top U.S. officials have also been divided over whether to seek peace negotiations with the Taliban now or wait until the new U.S. strategy has begun to shift the momentum on the battlefield. The McMaster view is that you should not negotiate with the Taliban while they are still ascendant, said the former U.S. official.

But the current U.S.-Afghan war strategy is built around a four-year plan to push back the Taliban that is not likely to yield significant results until its later stages, U.S. officials said.

Earlier this week, Trump met over lunch with service members who had fought in Afghanistan and suggested that his patience with the war might be running out.

Its our longest war. Weve been there for many years, Trump told reporters before the lunch. Weve been there for now close to 17 years, and I want to find out why weve been there for 17 years, how its going, and what we should do in terms of additional ideas.

One challenge for Trump is that there are not a lot of new options available to him that do not come with a big price tag. In recent months, Trump has loosened the rules governing American airstrikes, allowing U.S. forces to boost the air campaign against the Taliban to levels not seen since 2012, when the United States had 100,000 troops in the country.

Im skeptical that the strategy can be dramatically improved, said Michael OHanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. You can try to be tougher on Pakistan. You can try to make clear that we are there for a long-term commitment. But I dont expect a dramatic metamorphosis of this mission.

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Trump suggests that more US troops might not be needed in Afghanistan - Washington Post